cinctura

Forms

cīnctūra f (genitive cīnctūrae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin cinctus¹ + -ūra, according to the OLD;^[2] Wiktionary analyses it as cingō (“to gird”) with the suffix -tūra.^[1] The TLL derives it from the verb and its participle.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Quintilian, who says that the back part of the toga should end higher, in the same proportion as the girdle.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

It was a rare word in Classical Latin:^[4] besides Quintilian, Suetonius has it in the life of Julius Caesar, of girding oneself with a looser belt.^[3][4] Glossaries equate it with cinctus.^[3]

In Ecclesiastical and Medieval Latin it was the ordinary word for a belt or girdle,^[5][6][7] and Wiktionary records medieval uses for the girding on of a lord's belt of investiture, for the eastern belt called a zone and for the liturgical cincture.^[1] It is the source of Italian and Spanish cintura and French ceinture.^[3][8] English borrowed it as cincture in the 1580s.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of the girdle in relation to the toga.^[3][10]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it in the life of Julius Caesar.^[3][4][10]
• 1580s – English borrows it as cincture.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A means of girding; a girdle, belt.^[2][4]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A cincture.^[5][1]
3. (Medieval Latin) The girding on of a belt as a sign of investiture.^[1]

Related words

• cingō
• cingulum
• English cincture

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de