area

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈaː.re.a]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈaː.re.a]^[1]

Forms

ārea f (genitive āreae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3][4] The OLD, the TLL and Etymonline suggest a derivation from āreō “to be dry”, as a dry, bare space.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary also gives a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₂r- (“threshing tool”), comparing Hittite ḫaḫḫar (“rake”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found in Cato (234–149 BC), who explains how to make a threshing floor.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Its main senses were a threshing floor, as in Cato and Varro, a garden bed, and an open space clear of buildings, especially a site for building, a courtyard, or an open square in Rome such as the area Capitoli.^[2][6] Columella speaks of salt pans, and Celsus of bald patches on the head.^[2]

In geometry it was a plane surface, and areae pes a square foot.^[2] The poets used it of any site or field of action, as Ovid's place fit for a battle.^[2] In Medieval Latin it was a plot of land in a town or the country.^[5] It survives as Italian aia, French aire and Spanish era, “threshing floor”, and English borrowed area in the 1530s.^[1][4]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of a threshing floor and garden beds.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a building site.^[6][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of plane surfaces.^[2][5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of bald patches.^[2][5]
• 1530s – English area is borrowed.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. An open space, a vacant lot, a building site; a courtyard, square.^[2][1]
2. A threshing floor.^[2][1]
3. A garden bed.^[2][1]
4. area salinarum: a salt pan.^[2]
5. A bald patch.^[2][1]
6. (geometry) A plane surface.^[2]
7. A site, field (of action).^[2]

Word family

• āreālis
• āreola

Related words

• English area

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 m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.