armatura

Forms

armātūra f (genitive armātūrae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from armō (“to arm”) with the suffix -ūra.^[2][3][1] The verb comes from arma (“weapons”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *armo- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂(e)r-mo- (“fitting”), from the root *h₂er- (“to join, fit”); the meaning developed from “what is fitted together” or “tools” to “weapons”.^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Cicero as its first author,^[5] whose letters say that Deiotarus had thirty cohorts “armed in our manner”.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is a type of military equipment or arms, as Cicero's varied equipment of infantry and cavalry, and levis armātūra is light-armed troops, as in Cicero and Caesar.^[2][6] Suetonius uses it of a troop of gladiators, the Thracians whom Titus favoured, and inscriptions of the later army name a rank or class of soldier of uncertain meaning.^[2]

The TLL notes that it is never a noun of action, and that it lives on in Italian armatura, French armure and Spanish armadura.^[3] In medieval Latin it is a ship's rigging, equipment including weapons and armour, armour itself, a single weapon and a coat of arms.^[7] English armature comes from it, first for an armed force and since the mid-15th century for armour.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of equipment and of light-armed troops.^[2][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius of a troop of gladiators.^[2][5]
• c. 1400 – English armature “an armed force”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Military equipment, armament, armour.^[2][6][9]
2. levis armātūra: light-armed troops.^[2][6]
3. A troop (of gladiators).^[2]
4. (Late Latin) A rank or class of soldier.^[2]
5. (Medieval Latin) Rigging; a single weapon; a coat of arms.^[7]

Related words

• arma
• armō
• armātus
• English armature
• English armour

References

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