Etymologically
Log in

basterna

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 25 October 2026 at 00:23. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [basˈtɛr.na][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [basˈtɛr.na][1]

Forms

basterna f (genitive basternae); first declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.[2][3] Wiktionary considers an Etruscan source probable.[1] Some scholars, as the TLL reports, have compared bastum1 (“stick, packsaddle”) and a Greek verb meaning “to carry”,[2] and Niermeyer derives it from that noun.[4] A Latin glossary likewise traces it to the Greek verb for “to carry”, while Isidore of Seville explained it as “quasi viae sternax”, something spread out for the road.[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the Historia Augusta (4th/5th century AD):[3] in the Life of Elagabalus the emperor gives away quadrigas, equos stratos, mulos, basternas et raedas “four-horse chariots, saddled horses, mules, litters and carriages”.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It was a closed litter carried by mules.[6] Ammianus and Palladius mention it,[2][6] Servius explains the old pilenta as vehicles “like the basternae we see now”,[2] and Jerome offers dormitoria or basternae as a rendering of the Septuagint's covered vehicles in Isaiah.[2] Glossaries describe it as the vehicle in which noble Roman women and girls were carried, made entirely of leather, borne by men or donkeys and without wheels.[2] For Isidore it is a travelling vehicle laid with soft straw and carried by two animals.[5]

Medieval Latin kept the sense of a litter;[4] Köbler records it in Gregory of Tours.[3]

Timeline

  • 4th/5th century AD – The Historia Augusta lists litters among the presents of Elagabalus.[2][6][3]
  • c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it to render the covered vehicles of the Septuagint.[2][3]
  • c. 390 AD – Ammianus mentions it.[2][6][3]
  • c. 400 AD – Servius compares the ancient pilenta to the litters of his own day.[2][3]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville describes it as a litter on soft straw carried by two animals.[5][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A closed litter or sedan chair carried by mules or other animals, used especially by women of rank.[6][2][5][4]

Word family

  • basternarius

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press