Etymologically
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album

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈaɫ.bũː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈal.bum][1]

Forms

album n (genitive albī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is the neuter of albus “white” used as a noun.[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero, in De oratore, describes how the chief pontiff recorded the events of each year and set them up on a white board at his house.[2] Köbler dates Cicero 81–43 BC.[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant the colour white, as of spotted hides in Virgil's Eclogues, and a white substance.[2] Celsus has album oculorum, the white of the eyes.[5] The white of an egg was album ōvī.[1]

Its public sense was a white tablet or noticeboard: the chief pontiff's annals, the calendar that Livy says was displayed round the forum, and the praetor's edict.[2][3] From this it came to mean any official list, such as the roll of senators from which Tacitus says a man was struck off.[2] Medieval Latin used it of the book of life and of confraternity books.[4] German scholars revived the word in the 16th century for an album amicorum of colleagues' signatures, and English album is recorded in the 1650s.[3]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the pontiff's white board.[2][4]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of the calendar displayed round the forum.[2][4]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of the senatorial roll.[2][4]
  • 1650s – English album is recorded, first as albo “souvenir book”.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The colour white, whiteness.[2][1]
  2. A white substance, album oculorum, the white of the eye, album ōvī, the white of an egg.[2][5][1]
  3. A white tablet or noticeboard, for edicts and annals.[2][1]
  4. An official list or register.[2][1]
  5. (Medieval Latin) The book of life; a confraternity book.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.