Etymologically
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atrium

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈaː.tri.ũː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈaː.tri.um][1]

Forms

ātrium n (genitive ātriī or ātrī); second declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is disputed.[2][1] De Vaan lists it under āter “black” as a derivative of *ātro-, on the view that the room first held the fireplace and was blackened by its smoke; this view was already current in antiquity and has no independent support, but de Vaan sees no better one.[3][4] Scaliger derived it from Ancient Greek αἴθριον (aíthrion, “open to the sky”), and Varro from the Etruscan town of Atria.[5] Wiktionary also mentions Etruscan 𐌀𐌈𐌓𐌄 (aθre, “house”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards.[3] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[6]

Semantic evolution

It was the first main room of a Roman house, with an opening in the roof, where callers were received.[2] Georges describes it as the smoke-blackened room of old Italian farmhouses that became the front hall of town houses.[4] In poetry the plural meant a whole house or palace, as Ovid's halls of Jupiter, and it was also a hall used for business, especially auctions.[2]

Isidore says it was named for the three porticoes added to it, or, as others thought, from atrum “black”, because of the smoke of fire and lamp.[7] In medieval Latin it was the consecrated churchyard in front of or around a church.[8][6] English atrium was borrowed in the 1570s for the entrance hall of a Roman house.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[3][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses the plural of the halls of Jupiter.[2][6]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore explains the name.[7][6]
  • 1570s – English atrium is borrowed.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The main front room of a Roman house, an atrium, hall.[2][1]
  2. (plural, poetic) A house, a palace.[2]
  3. A hall for business, especially auctions.[2]
  4. A hall or court of a temple.[1]
  5. (Medieval Latin) A churchyard.[8]

Word family

  • atriarius
  • ātriolum
  • ātriēnsis
  • Ātrius
  • vestibulum
  • ater
  • English atrium

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com