articulatus

Forms

articulātus (feminine articulāta, neuter articulātum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is the perfect passive participle from Latin articulō (“to divide into joints; to utter distinctly”), made an adjective,^[2][3][1] or else formed directly from Latin articulus (“joint”) + -ātus.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Solinus (first half of the 3rd century AD) uses it of words, meaning “articulate, distinct”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Arnobius and the grammarians speak of the vox articulata, the articulate voice, as opposed to the vox inarticulata;^[3] Caelius Aurelianus contrasts speech that is not articulata with confused speech, and Isidore uses it of a parrot that utters words distinctly.^[3] In Christian writers it also means “jointed”: Ambrose and Paulinus of Nola use it of limbs, and Augustine asks the Manichaeans whether God has a jointed form.^[5][3]

In New Latin grammar it was used of a noun with an article.^[1]

Timeline

• first half of the 3rd century AD – Solinus uses it of distinct words.^[3][4]
• 297–310 AD – Arnobius speaks of the articulate voice.^[3][4]
• c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose uses it of things joined together.^[5][4]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of a body with joints.^[5][3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Articulate, distinct, clearly uttered.^[3][6]
2. Having joints, jointed.^[3][5]
3. (New Latin, grammar) With an article.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson