Etymologically
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arca

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 19 October 2026 at 16:43. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈar.ka][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈar.ka][1]

Forms

arca f (genitive arcae); first declension[1] Inscriptions also spell it arka.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *arkā (“container”), derived from the root of arceō (“to contain, keep off”), Proto-Indo-European *h2(o)r(ḱ)- (“to hold”); de Vaan thinks the noun may be of PIE date or an Italic formation on the verb's root.[3][1] The diminutive may be Proto-Italic, if Umbrian arçlataf (“a sacrificial gift”) belongs here.[3] The root is also seen in Hittite har(k)- (“to hold”) and Ancient Greek ἀρκέω (arkéō, “to ward off”).[3] Servius explained ⟨arca⟩ and arx as secret places from which everyone is kept away.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[3] whose Bacchides has a slave saying that this horse will attack not the citadel but the money chest.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a chest or box, especially for money, and so a temple's or association's treasury, as Martial's coffers of Minerva, and one's money, as Cicero's “rely on our cash box”.[2][4] It also means a coffin, or a box in which paupers' bodies were carried, and a cell for confining slaves, as in Cicero's Pro Milone.[2] In Vitruvius it is a box or cage in machines, a cofferdam for building in water, and the frame of a roof opening.[2]

Church Latin uses it for the Ark, both Noah's and the Ark of the Covenant.[5][1] In medieval sources it is also the public treasury.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a money chest.[2][3][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of cash and of slaves' cells.[2][7]
  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of cofferdams.[2][7]
  • Old English – Borrowed as earc, the source of English ark, mainly for Noah's ark.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A chest, coffer, box; a treasury; money.[2][4][1][5]
  2. A coffin.[2][1]
  3. A cell for confinement.[2][1]
  4. (engineering) A box or cage; a cofferdam; a frame.[2]
  5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) An ark: Noah's Ark; the Ark of the Covenant.[5][1][6]
  6. (Medieval Latin) The public treasury.[6]

Word family

  • arcānus
  • arcārius
  • arcātūra
  • arcella
  • arcula

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com