carbonarius

Forms

carbōnārius (feminine carbōnāria, neuter carbōnārium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin carbō + -ārius, from carbō (“charcoal”).^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, as a noun for a charcoal burner: in the Casina a husband is to be sent back to town with a fork, like a charcoal burner.^[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it meant “of charcoal”: the De viris illustribus says that the father of Scaurus, being poor, traded in charcoal (carbōnārium negōtium).^[3][4] Servius' commentary speaks of a taberna carbonaria, a charcoal shop.^[6][7] The noun named the man who burned or sold charcoal,^[3] and inscriptions record it.^[3][4]

The feminine carbōnāria meant a charcoal kiln;^[4][8] it was also the title of comedies by Naevius and Plautus.^[3] The word lives on in French charbonnier, Italian carbonaio and Spanish carbonero.^[3][1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a charcoal burner.^[3][5]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian has the feminine carbonaria for a charcoal kiln, in a proverb.^[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to charcoal.^[4][6]

Noun

1. A charcoal burner; a charcoal seller.^[2][3]

Word family

• carbōnāria

Usage notes

Tertullian's “from the lime kiln into the charcoal kiln” (dē calcāriā in carbōnāriam) was a proverb for going from bad to worse.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.