caldarium

Forms

caldārium n (genitive caldāriī or caldārī); second declension^[1] The unsyncopated form calidārium is used by Celsus.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin caldārius (“used for hot water”), used as a noun in the neuter.^[3][2] The OLD forms the adjective from calida (“hot water”) with -ārius,^[3] Wiktionary from caldus, the syncopated form of calidus (“warm”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Vitruvius uses it for the hot room of the baths.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Celsus and Seneca use it for the hot room or a hot bath.^[3][2] Wiktionary also gives the boiler that heated the water for the baths, and in Late Latin a portable stove.^[1]

In Medieval Latin it meant a cooking pot, a kettle or cauldron and a salt pan;^[4] Hungarian records have it for a cauldron used to wash clothes,^[5] Polish ones for the cauldron of an ordeal, the pan in which brine was boiled and a brewing kettle,^[6] and Czech ones for a brewing vessel and a vessel for baptismal or holy water.^[7] German Kaldarium names the hot room of the Roman baths.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it for the hot room of the baths.^[3][2][4]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses the form calidarium.^[2][4]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it in his letters.^[3][4]
• c. 400 AD – Marcellus uses it.^[4]
• 1494 – A Hungarian record mentions a cauldron for washing clothes.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The hot room of the baths, the caldarium; a hot bath.^[3][2][1]
2. A boiler that heated the water for the baths.^[1]
3. (Late Latin) A portable stove.^[1]
4. (Medieval Latin) A cauldron, kettle or cooking pot.^[4][5][7]
5. (Medieval Latin) A salt pan; a brewing kettle.^[4][6][7]

Related words

• caldāmentum
• caldāria
• caldāriola
• caldor
• caleō
• calida
• calidē
• calidum
• calidus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
6. ^ a b Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
7. ^ a b c Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum / Slovník středověké latiny v českých zemích (1977–), Prague: Academia; electronic version, Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences