arcuarius

Forms

arcuārius (feminine arcuāria, neuter arcuārium); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Manuscripts and glossaries also write it arcarius.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin arcus (“bow”) + -ārius.^[4][5][2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is the jurist Tarruntenus Paternus, quoted in the Digest, who lists the bow-makers (arcuāriī) among the craftsmen of the army exempt from heavier duties, beside the horn-makers and lead-workers.^[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it describes things to do with bows: Vegetius speaks of bow workshops beside those for shields and armour,^[5][2][6] and the Notitia dignitatum names a bow factory at Ticinum.^[2] An ancient glossary renders the noun by Greek τοξοποιός (toxopoiós, “bow-maker”),^[2] and the Latin version of Josephus uses it for an archer.^[2]

In British Medieval Latin it meant both a bowyer and a bowman or archer, and in the 16th century a builder of arches.^[3]

Timeline

• 161–182 AD – Tarruntenus Paternus lists bow-makers among army craftsmen.^[2][6]
• c. 400 AD – Vegetius uses it as an adjective of bow workshops.^[5][2][6]
• 425–433 AD – The Notitia dignitatum names a bow factory at Ticinum.^[2][6]
• 1173 – An English pipe roll records pay for ten archers.^[3]
• 1518 – It is used for a builder of arches.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or for bows: fabrica arcuāria, a bow workshop.^[5][2][1]

Noun

1. A bowyer, bow-maker.^[4][5][1][3]
2. (Late Latin) An archer, bowman.^[2][3]
3. (Medieval Latin) A builder of arches.^[3]

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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de