arteria

Forms

artēria f (genitive artēriae); first declension^[1] The OLD and Lewis and Short also record a neuter artērium.^[2][3] Gaffiot lists a neuter plural artēria “windpipe” in Lucretius as a separate entry.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀρτηρία (artēría, “windpipe; artery”).^[2][1][5][6] Etymonline relates the Greek word to ἀείρω (aeírō, “to raise”),^[7] and Köbler compares αἴρω (aírō, “to lift”) and the root Proto-Indo-European *u̯er- (“to bind, hang up”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first citation is from the Rhetorica ad Herennium, where the windpipe is harmed when it is filled with sharp shouting (laeditur arteria si … acri clamore completur).^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was the windpipe, also called aspera arteria “the rough artery”, and in the plural the breathing passages.^[2][3][4] Cicero uses it for an artery, and the arteries were thought to carry air;^[2][4] Etymonline notes that the ancients regarded them as air ducts.^[7] Pliny the Elder also applies it to other ducts, such as the ureter.^[2] English took it in the late 14th century as artery, through Anglo-French and Old French and directly from Latin.^[7]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius has a neuter plural artēria for the windpipe.^[4][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for an artery and for the windpipe (aspera arteria).^[2][4][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for the windpipe and for other ducts.^[3][2][6]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as artery.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The windpipe, trachea; also aspera arteria.^[2][3]
2. (plural) The bronchi and trachea, the breathing passages.^[2]
3. An artery, thought of as carrying air.^[2][4]
4. Another duct of the body, such as the ureter.^[2]

Word family

• arteriacus
• artēriacē
• artēriōsus
• artēriotomia

Related words

• English artery

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com