cibaria

Forms

cibāria n pl (genitive cibāriōrum); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is the neuter plural of the adjective cibārius (“of food”), used as a noun;^[2][3][1] the adjective is from Latin cibus (“food”) + -ārius.^[1][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Plautus, who uses it of money given for food: dedistī fīliō cibāria, “you gave your son his food money”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Cato uses it of the rations of slaves, which should be smaller when they are ill, and of the yearly fodder of oxen.^[2][3] It was the usual word for soldiers' rations: Caesar has the Helvetii take three months' ground rations from home, and Nepos and Livy speak of cooked rations.^[2][3][6] Cicero uses it of the grain allowance of provincial magistrates and their staff and of the monthly rations of the Roman people.^[2][3] Horace, Columella and Pliny the Elder use it of food and provisions in general,^[2] and Petronius has the insult corvōrum cibāria, food for crows.^[2][6]

The jurists distinguish it from alimenta, which covers everything needed to sustain life,^[3] and the jurist Paulus speaks of a yearly allowance in money for food and clothing.^[2] Ecclesiastical Latin kept the sense of food and sustenance;^[7] in Medieval Latin the feminine singular cibāria also meant grain.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of money given for food.^[2][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of rations for slaves and fodder for oxen.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the grain allowance of provincial magistrates.^[2][3][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of soldiers' rations.^[2][5]
• before 66 AD – Petronius has the insult corvōrum cibāria.^[2][5]
• 822–823 – Ardo uses it.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ration or allowance of food, for slaves, soldiers or officials.^[2][3]
2. Fodder for animals.^[2][3]
3. Food, provisions, victuals in general.^[2][3][7]
4. Money given for buying food; a food allowance.^[2]
5. (Medieval Latin, feminine) Grain, corn.^[8]

Usage notes

The grammarians Charisius, Diomedes and Probus count it among the words used only in the plural; testators, as the jurist Pomponius shows, used the singular cibārium.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill