Etymologically
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atriensis

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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]

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