choraules

Forms

choraulēs m (genitive choraulae); first declension^[1] Also choraula, -ae.^[2][3][1] The accusative is choraulēn (Petronius, Pliny the Elder) or choraulam (Suetonius);^[4][3] the grammarian Probus gives both nominatives.^[5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek χοραύλης (khoraúlēs, “flute player accompanying a chorus”),^[2][1][6] a compound of χορός (khorós, “chorus, dance”) and αὐλός (aulós, “pipe, flute”).^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Petronius has choraulēn meum iussī Latīnē cantāre, “I ordered my choraules to sing in Latin”, and later someone imitates choraulae on shaken reeds.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

It was the player of the reed pipe who accompanied a chorus, also at banquets and in the theatre.^[2][4][8] Pliny the Elder tells of Ismenias, a choraules who used to wear many brilliant gems,^[5] Martial names it beside the lyre-player,^[5][4] and Suetonius lists it with the water-organist and the bagpiper.^[5][3] The grammarian Diomedes, drawing on Suetonius, says that pantomimes, pythaules and choraules performed in comedy,^[5] and Hyginus explains the name by a pythaules who had seven cloaked singers with him.^[5] Augustine plays on a man who wanted to seem a choraules when he was not.^[5] Glossaries render it as mime, jester and singer.^[9][5]

In Medieval Latin it could mean a singer and a dance-leader,^[10][11] and in the Church the leader of a choir, the precentor:^[12][10][13] a synod of the church of Elne in 1027 names a canon Gauzbert as choraulēs, a title the same document replaces with caput scholae.^[13][14] Remigius of Auxerre mistakenly explains it as one who blows a horn like a herdsman.^[15] Wyclif, after Aristotle's On the Cosmos, calls God the coraula who leads the dance of all motion.^[11] In English glossaries it is also a fiddler and a fiddle.^[11]

Timeline

• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it.^[5][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder tells of the choraules Ismenias.^[5][6]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial names it beside the lyre-player.^[5][4][6]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses the form choraula.^[5][3][6]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it in his commentary on the Psalms.^[5][6]
• 2nd half of 9th century – Remigius of Auxerre explains it as a horn-blower.^[15][6]
• 1027 – A synod of the church of Elne uses it for a cathedral precentor.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A piper or flute-player who accompanied a chorus.^[2][4][5][3]
2. (Late Latin) A mime, jester; a singer.^[9][5][10]
3. (Medieval Latin) A precentor, the leader of a choir.^{[12][10][13][11]}
4. (Medieval Latin) A dance-leader; figuratively, a leader.^[10][11]
5. (Medieval Latin) A fiddler; a fiddle.^[11]

Related words

• chorus
• tībīcen

Usage notes

A medieval proverb, after a letter of Augustine, ran malus choraula, bonus symphōniacus, “a bad piper is a good chorister”.^[11][14] Wiktionary treats choraula as another form of this word.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Goetz, Georg (1888–1923), Corpus glossariorum Latinorum, Leipzig: Teubner; vols. VI–VII Thesaurus glossarum emendatarum, digital ed. CGLO, Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ a b c d e Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
11. ^ a b c d e f g 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
12. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
13. ^ a b c d Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis Cataloniae (1960–; online ed. 2025), Barcelona: CSIC / Institució Milà i Fontanals, gmlc.imf.csic.es
14. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
15. ^ a b Lexicon musicum Latinum medii aevi (1992–), Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften; online ed. Wörterbuchnetz