atriensis

Forms

ātriēnsis m (genitive ātriēnsis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ātrium (“hall, atrium”) + -ēnsis.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[3] in whose Casina and Poenulus it is the steward who runs the household.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It is the overseer of the atrium and generally of the house, the steward or major-domo.^[4] Cicero has it only twice, once of a man who is both cook and steward.^[4][2] It is also a slave working under the steward: Cicero says that in a large household some slaves, such as the ātriēnsēs, think themselves finer, yet are still slaves.^[2] Inscriptions record stewards of individual households, among them one of Livia, and Suetonius mentions the room of the Palatine steward struck by lightning.^[2][5] A gloss explains it as ⟨scopariī⟩, sweepers.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of the steward of a house.^[2][4][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a steward and of house servants.^[2][4][3]
• 1st century AD – Columella of house servants who set out the furniture.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The servant in charge of a household, steward, major-domo.^[2][4][1]
2. A house slave working under the steward.^[2]

Related words

• ātrium

References

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