Etymologically
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apparatus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ap.paˈraː.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ap.paˈraː.tus][1]

Forms

apparātus m (genitive apparātūs); fourth declension[1] It is also spelled adparātus.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from apparō (“to prepare, provide”) with the suffix -tus.[2][1][4] The verb is ad- and parō (“to prepare”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *parāje/o-, perhaps a verb made from a noun Proto-Indo-European *prh₃-o- (“providing”), from the root of Sanskrit पृणाति (pṛṇā́ti, “to give, grant”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and the OLD find the noun first in Cicero,[6][2] who counts preparation (apparātus) among the things asked about before a deed.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the act of preparing, the building or equipping of something, as the building of a fleet (Cicero), and providing (Vitruvius).[2] It is display and pomp (Cicero), the trappings of a feast or of oratory, and instruments or equipment, the gear of public games, engines of war and a stock of arms (Livy).[2][3]

Church Latin glosses it “preparation, equipment”.[7] In medieval Latin it was armament, the vessels of the liturgy, and a commentary, above all Accursius' gloss on the Digest and the Code.[8] English apparatus (1620s) is a collection of tools for some end.[4]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of preparation, pomp and armaments.[2][6]
  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of supplying.[2][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a store of arms.[2][6]
  • 1620s – English apparatus.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Preparation; building, equipping; providing.[2][1][7]
  2. Display, pomp, sumptuousness.[2][1]
  3. Trappings; rhetorical embellishments.[2]
  4. Instruments, equipment; the gear of public games; engines of war.[2][1]
  5. A stock, store.[2]
  6. (Medieval Latin) Liturgical vessels; a commentary, gloss (on law books).[8]

Usage notes

The participle apparātus, -a, -um is also an adjective, “prepared”, and of public games “sumptuous”: Cicero has lūdōs apparātissimōs;[2][3] the Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it of a laboured style.[2]

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 m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  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. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill