Etymologically
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atratus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [aːˈtraː.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [aˈtraː.tus][1]

Forms

ātrātus (feminine ātrāta, neuter ātrātum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin āter (“black”) + -ātus, formed as if from a verb ⟨ātrō⟩, which is not attested.[2][3][4] Varro already derived it from āter.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest example is in Caecilius Statius, ātrātīs dentibus, “with blackened teeth”.[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

Besides “darkened, blackened”, as in Propertius' black horses of the sun,[3][2] it meant “dressed in black”, especially in mourning: Cicero asks who ever dined in mourning clothes, and Tacitus and Suetonius use it of mourners.[2][4] Suetonius also uses it of suppliants.[4]

Timeline

  • 230/220–168 BC – Caecilius Statius uses it of blackened teeth.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for people dressed in mourning.[2][5]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of the mourning people.[4][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Darkened, blackened, dingy.[2][1]
  2. Dressed in black, in mourning.[2][4]

Word family

  • obātrātus
  • sēmiātrātus

Usage notes

Ātrātus was also the name of a small river near Rome which, Cicero reports, once ran with blood.[4][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de