auditorius

Forms

audītōrius (feminine audītōria, neuter audītōrium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin audītor (“hearer”) + -ius,^[2][3] which Wiktionary analyses as audiō (“to hear”) with the suffix -tōrius.^[1] The verb goes back to Proto-Italic *awizdje/o- (“to hear”), which de Vaan explains as Proto-Indo-European *h₂eu-is (“clearly”) combined with a verb meaning “to render”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest record is in the medical writer Vindicianus,^[5] of the 4th century AD,^[6] who speaks of fluid passing through the auditoriae cavernae, the passages of the ear.^[5]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it is rare: Lewis & Short know it only from Caelius Aurelianus, again with cavernae for the auditory passages.^[2][7] The neuter used as a noun, audītōrium, was far more frequent.^[2]

In Medieval Latin it meant both “listening” (a listening crowd) and “belonging to the sense of hearing”, as in the anatomical term for the auditory nerve.^[8] English borrowed it as auditory in the 1570s.^[3]

Timeline

• 4th century AD – Vindicianus writes of the auditory passages of the ear.^[5][6]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses the same phrase in a chapter on earache.^[5][6]
• 1570s – Borrowed into English as auditory.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to hearing or to a hearer; auditory.^[2][7][9]
2. (Medieval Latin) Listening, made up of hearers.^[8]

Word family

• audītōrium

Related words

• English auditory

Usage notes

The neuter audītōrium, used as a noun for a hearing in court or a lecture hall, has its own entry: audītōrium.^[2][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.