boarius

Forms

boārius (feminine boāria, neuter boārium); first/second-declension adjective^[1] The older spelling bovārius is found in Cicero, Varro, Propertius and Livy.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin bōs + -ārius, from bōs (“ox, cow”).^[4][2][1] The older spelling is ⟨bovārius⟩.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has the oldest record, in the phrase in forō bovāriō, “in the cattle market”.^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

The word was used above all in forum boārium, the cattle market of Rome,^[4][3] named in Varro, Livy, Valerius Maximus, Pliny the Elder and Tacitus.^[2] The dealers in cattle (negōtiantēs boāriī) appear in inscriptions,^[2][3] and the Novels of Valentinian use boārius as a noun for a cattle dealer.^[6][7] Pliny the Elder names a plant lappa boāria, a kind of bur.^[4][3]

In medieval Latin it was an oxherd or ox-driver,^[8][5] and it lives on in Italian boaro and Catalan boer.^[1][2]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero names the forum bovārium.^[2][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy repeatedly mentions the forum boārium.^[2][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder names the plant lappa boāria.^[4][3]
• 204 AD – An inscription in Rome names the cattle dealers (negōtiantēs boāriī).^[2]
• 1139 – A charter uses it as a noun for an ox dealer or cowherd.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to cattle.^[4][3]
2. forum boārium – the cattle market at Rome.^[4][3]
3. lappa boāria – a kind of bur.^[4]

Noun

1. (Late Latin) A cattle dealer.^[6][7]
2. (Medieval Latin) An oxherd.^[8][5]

Usage notes

Ovid explains the name of the forum boārium by the bronze ox that stood there,^[3] and Propertius links the place with the herd Hercules brought there.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre