bestiarius

Forms

bēstiārius m (genitive bēstiāriī or bēstiārī); second declension^[1] As an adjective: bēstiārius, bēstiāria, bēstiārium; first/second-declension adjective.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin bēstia (“beast”) + -ārius.^[2][1][3] The origin of bēstia is uncertain; de Vaan compares bēlua (“beast, monster”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero is the first author.^[3][5] In the Pro Sestio he mocks an aedileship that offered “one lion, two hundred beast-fighters”, ūnus leō, ducentī bēstiāriī.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It named a man who fought wild beasts in the arena;^[2][6] Georges and Lewis and Short distinguish hired fighters, who were armed and rewarded when they won, from condemned criminals, who fought without weapons.^[7][6] Both give Ancient Greek θηριομάχης (thēriomákhēs) as its equivalent.^[7][6] Seneca tells of a lion in the amphitheatre that recognised one of the beast-fighters as its former keeper and protected him,^[3] and Petronius has a speaker who has seen better beast-fighters.^[3] As an adjective it is found only in Seneca's in lūdō bēstiāriō, a beast fight, a reading the TLL marks as doubtful.^[3][8][7]

In Christian writers the old Latin text of 1 Corinthians, quoted by Tertullian, says that God chose the apostles as if they were bēstiāriī, where the Vulgate has “as men condemned to death”,^[3] and Lactantius complains of making beast-fighters rich.^[3] Glossaries explain it as a hunter of beasts.^[9][10] British Medieval Latin used the adjective for beastlike or savage, the neuter as a noun for cattle, and the word for a book of beasts, a bestiary.^[10]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the beast-fighters of the games.^[3][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses the noun and, once, the adjective.^[3][5]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it of the arena fighters.^[3][5]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian quotes it from the old Latin version of 1 Corinthians.^[3][5]
• c. 1396 – The Meaux chronicle uses it for a book on the nature of beasts.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A man who fights wild beasts in the arena, a beast-fighter.^[2][6][7]
2. (Medieval Latin) A hunter of beasts.^[9][10]
3. (Medieval Latin) A bestiary, a book of beasts.^[10]

Adjective

1. Of or comprising fights with wild beasts.^[2][7]
2. (Medieval Latin) Beastlike, savage.^[10]

Related words

• bēstia

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
10. ^ a b c d e f Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press