brandeum

Forms

brandeum n (genitive brandeī); second declension^[1] Also spelled prandeum; medieval texts also have a masculine brandeus and a feminine brandea.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

The TLL, Köbler and the MLW give it as borrowed from Ancient Greek πράνδιον (prándion), whose own origin is unknown.^[2][5][4] The DMLBS compares it, with a question mark, with Greek πράνδιος (prándios) “fillet”.^[6] Wiktionary instead takes it as Germanic, from Frankish *brādon, from Proto-Germanic *brēdô, comparing English brawn.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Gregory the Great writes that the Romans, when giving relics, do not touch the body of the saint, but put a brandeum in a box instead: the cloth that had touched the relics.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It was first the linen or silk cloth used to cover relics and wrap the bodies of saints,^[7][4][3] and so also a shroud and an altar cloth.^[4][3] More widely it named a precious fabric or a garment made of it,^[4][8] and, cut into strips, a band or ribbon;^[3][8] a glossary already explains prandeum as a kind of girdle.^[2] In a late English glossary brandium renders “buckram”.^[6]

Timeline

• 540–604 AD – Gregory the Great describes the custom of the brandeum.^[2][5]
• 9th century – Hincmar tells how the body of Saint Remigius was wrapped in a red brandeum.^[4][8][5]
• 15th century – An English glossary gives brandium for buckram.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A linen or silk veil for covering relics, or a cloth that has touched them.^[9][3][7]
2. (Medieval Latin) A shroud; an altar cloth.^[4][3]
3. (Medieval Latin) A precious fabric, or a garment of it.^[4][8]
4. (Medieval Latin) A band or ribbon.^[3][8]
5. (Medieval Latin) Buckram.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d 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
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d e du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson