Etymologically
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artus

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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

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