caupona

Forms

caupōna f (genitive caupōnae, masculine caupō); first declension^[1] Also spelled cōpōna.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin caupō (“tradesman, innkeeper”) + -a, formed on the stem ⟨caupōn-⟩ with the feminine ending.^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest use is in Lucilius, where it means a landlady: “a Syrian landlady here, though”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “landlady, hostess” is found in Lucilius and again in Apuleius, who has an old woman who keeps an inn.^[3][5][6] From Cicero on it usually means the inn or tavern itself:^[2][6] Cicero reproaches Piso that a tavern served him for a town.^[2] Horace, Tacitus and Pliny the Elder use it so, Pliny of the vermin of inns in summer,^[3] and the jurists speak of running a tavern.^[3]

Medieval writers used it for a tavern or alehouse, and in German sources also for a brewhouse.^[7] English glossaries of the 15th century gloss it as a tavern and as a tavern-keeper's wife.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it of a landlady.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a tavern.^[2][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace mentions inns.^[6][4]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius speaks of an old landlady.^[3][4]
• mid-11th century – Amarcius uses it.^[4][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A woman who keeps an inn or shop, a landlady, hostess.^[2][6]
2. An inn, tavern, lodging house.^[2][6]
3. (Medieval Latin) An alehouse; a brewhouse.^[7]

Word family

• caupōnārius
• caupōnula

Related words

• cōpa

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes deversorium, any house where travellers stay, hospitium, an inn for strangers, and caupōna, a tavern kept by a publican.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper