Etymologically
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armatura

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ar.maːˈtuː.ra][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ar.maˈtuː.ra][1]

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]

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