amphora

Forms

amphora f (genitive amphorae); first declension^[1] As a measure it has the genitive plural amphorum.^[2][3] Manuscripts and inscriptions also spell it amfora and anphora.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀμφορεύς (amphoreús, “two-handled jar”).^[2][4][5][6] The Greek word is built on ἀμφί (amphí, “on both sides”) and the root of φέρω (phérō, “to carry”).^[6][1] The diminutive ampulla was formed from it.^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example in the OLD is Naevius' “the amphora drinks”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a large earthenware jar, usually with two handles, for wine or oil, and in Martial its contents, the wine.^[2][3] Cato already uses it as a measure of two urnae or 48 sextarii, and it was used for the size of ships: a letter of Lentulus speaks of transport ships none smaller than two thousand amphorae.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “pitcher, jug, bottle”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius of a jar.^[2][6]
• 234–149 BC – Cato of a measure.^[2][6]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial of the wine in a jar.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. An amphora, a large two-handled jar for wine or oil; its contents.^[2][3][1]
2. A measure of liquids, two urnae or 48 sextarii; a unit of a ship's burden.^[2][3][1]

Word family

• amphoralis
• amphorarius
• ampulla

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson