amictus

Forms

amictus m (genitive amictūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin amiciō + -tus, from the verb “to throw around oneself, clothe”.^[2][3] Lewis and Short take its original sense to be the throwing of a garment about oneself.^[4] De Vaan lists ⟨amiciō⟩ among the compounds of iaciō (“to throw”), with the prefix amb- (“around”) given by Wiktionary;^[5][1] he traces ⟨iaciō⟩ to Proto-Italic *jak-i- (“to throw”) and Proto-Indo-European *(H)ieh₁- (“to throw, let go”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from the comic poet Titinius,^[5] who has people watching someone's gait, gestures and way of dressing;^[2] Köbler gives Cicero.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a loose upper garment, mantle or cloak, as Virgil's head veiled in a purple mantle, and clothing or dress in general, as Cicero's Scythian who wears a Scythian covering.^[2][4] It is also a way of dressing or fashion, as when Cicero speaks of imitating someone's dress, and a covering or drapery, as Catullus' cloth draped over a couch.^[2][4] In poetry it is the mantle of the sky, of vegetation, of night or of sleep, as Lucretius' change of sky.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “vesture, garment, amice”,^[6] and in medieval Latin it is the amice, the linen cloth a priest wears over his neck and shoulders at Mass.^[7]

Timeline

• late 2nd–early 1st century BC – Titinius of a way of dressing.^[2][3]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the mantle of the sky.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of clothing and of fashion.^[2][4][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a purple mantle.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A loose upper garment, mantle, cloak.^[2][1]
2. Clothing, dress, garb.^[2][1][6]
3. A way of dressing, fashion.^[2][4][1]
4. A covering, drapery; in poetry, the mantle of the sky or of night.^[2][1]
5. (Medieval Latin) The amice, a priest's linen neck-cloth.^[7][6]

Related words

• amiciō
• amiculum
• iaciō
• vestis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill