Etymologically
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binarius

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [biːˈnaː.ri.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [biˈnaː.ri.us][1]

Forms

bīnārius (feminine bīnāria, neuter bīnārium); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin bīnus (“twofold; two each”) + -ārius.[1][2][3] Etymonline traces bīnī further to bis (“twice”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler finds it first in Augustine,[3] who speaks in a sermon of a twofold division shown by the number two.[2] The Historia Augusta's life of Alexander Severus has fōrmae bīnāriae, coins worth two gold pieces, which were ordered to be melted down.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Boethius and Favonius Eulogius use it in arithmetic.[2] In the Middle Ages it meant double, twofold,[6] and as a noun the number two: Alcuin compares the twenty in sixty with the two in six,[7] and Bartholomew the Englishman reports that some call the number two ill-famed, because it separates us from unity.[7] It was also used for a pair of contrasted things.[7]

English binary, from the mid-15th century, comes from it.[4]

Timeline

  • 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of the number two.[2][3]
  • c. 798 – Alcuin uses the noun for the number two.[7]
  • mid-15th century – English takes binary from it.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Consisting of two; twofold, double.[5][2][6]
  2. (of coins) Worth two aurei.[5][2]
  3. (New Latin) Binary.[1]

Noun

  1. (Medieval Latin) The number two.[7]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A pair, especially of contrasted things.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  7. ^ 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