calceamentum

Forms

calceāmentum n (genitive calceāmentī); second declension^[1] Also spelled calciāmentum.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin calceō (“to shoe”) + -mentum.^[2][4] The verb comes from calceus (“shoe”), which de Vaan lists among the derivatives of calx¹ (“heel”);^[5] the further origin of that noun is unclear, and a connection with Balto-Slavic words for a part of the leg is doubtful at best.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato is the first to use it, for a shoe.^[5][4][6]

Semantic evolution

Cicero, Celsus, Suetonius, Columella and Pliny the Elder use it for footwear in general.^[3] Among the poets only Prudentius and Arator use it.^[4] Festus reports Artorius' view that the tentipellium was an iron-shod calceamentum used to stretch hides.^[2]

In Medieval Latin it named a shoe, often collectively footwear, and also a half-boot and the hoof of an ox.^[7] It survives in Italian calzamento, Spanish calzamiento and Romanian încălțăminte.^[1]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it for shoes.^[5][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in the Tusculan Disputations.^[3][6]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it.^[3][6]
• 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius uses it in verse.^[4][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shoe; footwear.^[2][3]
2. An instrument for stretching hides (in Festus).^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) A half-boot; the hoof of an ox.^[7]

Word family

• calceamentarius

References

1. ^ a b 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften