atramentum

Forms

ātrāmentum n (genitive ātrāmentī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin āter (“black”) + -mentum.^[2][1][3] Isidore of Seville explains that it is called ātrāmentum because it is black.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found first in Plautus' Mostellaria, meaning a black colouring: one might as well try to whiten ivory with blacking.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

It named any black liquid or substance used for colouring, a black pigment or blacking:^[2][6] Horace notes that inks leave a mark and a stain when handled, and Vitruvius and Pliny the Elder describe its use by painters and for walls.^[2][7] Pliny counts it among the artificial colours.^[2]

Its commonest use was for writing ink (ātrāmentum librārium or scrīptōrium):^[2] Cato already says that Antiochus wages war with pen and ink, and Cicero writes with a pen and ink well mixed.^[2][7][4] Ātrāmentum sūtōrium, “shoemaker's black”, was a solution of copper sulphate used to blacken leather and as a medicine,^[2][7] and Cicero jokes about a man thought to have been acquitted by it.^[7] The black fluid of the cuttlefish was ātrāmentum sēpiae, with which Cicero says the cuttlefish protects itself.^[2][6]

In the Vulgate the Third Letter of John speaks of writing with ink and pen,^[6] and in Ecclesiastical Latin it means ink.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of blacking.^[2][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato speaks of fighting with pen and ink.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of writing ink, shoemaker's black and the cuttlefish's ink.^[2][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius describes how writing ink is made from soot.^[2][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it for ink.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A black pigment, blacking, any substance that colours things dark.^[2][6]
2. Writing ink.^[2][7][8]
3. (with sūtōrium) Shoemaker's black, a solution of copper sulphate also used in medicine.^[2][7]
4. (with sēpiae) The ink of the cuttlefish.^[2][6]

Word family

• ātrāmentārium

Related words

• āter

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson