cantharus

Forms

cantharus m (genitive cantharī); second declension^[1] It is also spelled cantarus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κάνθαρος (kántharos, “beetle; drinking cup”).^[4][1][5][3] Köbler, after Frisk, says the further origin of the Greek word is unknown.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler finds it first in Plautus,^[6] who uses it very often for a large drinking vessel with handles.^[7][4]

Semantic evolution

In Plautus and later it is a large, wide-bellied drinking cup with handles reaching far down, a tankard, and it was the usual attribute of Bacchus.^[7][2] Döderlein counts it among the Greek words for particular kinds of cup, beside the old Latin pōculum and calix.^[8] In the jurist Ulpian it seems to be the basin of a fountain,^[4][9] and in Paulinus of Nola a basin for holy water.^[9] It was also the name of a fish, the black sea bream,^[4][1] and Pliny the Elder says it was the name of a knot under the tongue of the Apis bull.^[4][9]

Church Latin used it for a large pitcher, a holy-water vessel or a well,^[10] medieval Latin for a dish holding candles, a candlestick,^[11] and for basins, funnels, lids and a beetle.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it often for a drinking cup.^[7][4][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it.^[9][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a knot under the Apis bull's tongue.^[4][6]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian uses it of the basin of a fountain.^[4][6]
• c. 353–431 AD – Paulinus of Nola uses it of a holy-water basin.^[9][6]
• Middle Ages – It also means a candlestick.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large drinking vessel with handles, a tankard.^[4][7][1]
2. The bowl or basin of a fountain;^[4][9] (Ecclesiastical Latin) a holy-water vessel.^[10][9]
3. The black sea bream.^[4][1]
4. A knot under the tongue of the Apis bull.^[4][9]
5. (Medieval Latin) A dish for candles, a candlestick.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
11. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
12. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften