artus

Forms

artus m (genitive artūs); fourth declension^[1] Plautus has once the neuter plural artua; the dative and ablative plural is usually artubus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *artu-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂r-tú- (“juncture, ordering”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- (“to fit together”).^[4][1] Cognate with Sanskrit ऋतु (ṛtú, “fixed time, order”), Ancient Greek ἀρτύς (artús, “arrangement”) and Old Armenian արդ (ard, “order”).^[4][1] The adjective artus (“close, tight”) is from the same root, and arma and ars are related.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it, once in the neuter plural artua.^[4][2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin, almost always in the plural, it was a joint of the body and then a limb, and the limbs as the parts that tremble with fear, grow tired, or hold a person's strength.^[2][6] It came to mean the members or frame of the body, in Virgil even of the universe as a living body, and rarely the sexual organs.^[2] Döderlein contrasts it, properly a joint, with membrum, a limb itself.^[7]

Since it was used as a plural, de Vaan thinks the diminutive articulus was coined as its singular.^[4] Through articulus it gave English article, first of the separate clauses of a text.^[8] Medieval writers kept the senses of joint and limb.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[4][5]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius threatens to tear someone limb from limb.^[2][5]
• c. 1200 – English article is recorded, from its diminutive articulus.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A joint of the body.^[2][3]
2. A limb, an arm or a leg.^[2][6]
3. (plural) The limbs as trembling, tiring, or as the seat of strength.^[2]
4. (plural) The members of the body, the body, frame.^[2][1]
5. (plural) The sexual organs.^[2]

Word family

• artō
• artum
• artutus
• artē
• artiō
• articulus
• artuātim
• artuātus

Related words

• arma
• ars
• English article

Usage notes

There is also an adjective artus “close, tight, narrow”, which gave Italian arto and the verb artō.^[4][2][1]

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 k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften