alvearium

Forms

alveārium n (genitive alveāriī or alveārī); second declension^[1] Columella has alveāre four times.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin alveus (“hollow, vessel, beehive”) + -ārium, perhaps through an adjective ⟨*alveārius⟩.^[3][1] ⟨alveus⟩ is from alvus (“belly”).^[4] De Vaan traces ⟨alvus⟩ to Proto-Italic *aulos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewlo- (“tube, cavity”), with metathesis of ⟨*aulos⟩ to ⟨*alwos⟩.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest source is Columella.^[4][2] Köbler dates Columella to the 1st century AD.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant a hollow vessel swelling in the middle, and especially a beehive, as in Columella and Palladius.^[3][2][6]

Timeline

• 1st century AD – Columella uses it.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A beehive.^[3]

Related words

• alveus
• alvārium
• alveolus

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.