Etymologically
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antrum

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈan.trũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈan.trum][1]

Forms

antrum n (genitive antrī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἄντρον (ántron, “cave”).[2][1][3][4] The Greek word is of uncertain origin, perhaps from a pre-Greek language.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short quote Virgil's Eclogues, succēdere antrō, “to go into the cave”, and find the word almost only in poetry.[5]

Semantic evolution

It is a cave or grotto, often as a cool shelter, as the home of gods and oracles, as the Sibyl's vast cave in Virgil, and as a beasts' den (Ovid's lions).[2] Propertius uses it of a leafy dell, and Petronius of a cavity in the ground;[2] ōris antrum is the mouth's cavity.[2] Lucan has it of a burial vault, where Alexander lies.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “cave, den”.[6] English antrum (1727), a cavity in the body, is a medical use of it.[4]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of caves and the Sibyl's grotto.[5][2][3]
  • 57/46–12 BC – Propertius of a leafy dell.[2][3]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of lions' dens.[2][3]
  • 1727 – English medical antrum.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A cave, cavern, grotto; a den.[2][1][6]
  2. A leafy hollow, dell.[2]
  3. A hollow, cavity.[2][1]
  4. A burial vault, tomb.[2][1]

Usage notes

Döderlein treats specus and caverna, hollows below or level with the ground, as kinds of antrum, and spēlunca as a cave opening into a mountain.[7]

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 k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper