clausa

Forms

clausa f (genitive clausae); first declension^[1][2][3]

Etymology

It is the feminine of clausus (“shut, closed”), the perfect passive participle of claudō (“to shut”), used as a noun for a closed part of the house.^[4][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is the comic poet Titinius, who sets things placed in the forum or the senate house against things kept rūre apud tē in clausā, “in the country, at your place, in the storeroom”.^[4][1][5]

Semantic evolution

In the Moretum the countryman opens the doors of the storeroom with a key.^[4][1][3] Corippus may have it of the confinement of the tomb, though the TLL leaves open whether the form there is this noun or a neuter plural.^[4]

In Medieval Latin it named many enclosed things: a fence or enclosure, an enclosed field or close, a monk's cell or a hermitage, a weir in a river and a dike.^[6][7][8] Charters from Catalonia use it from 927 for a plot of land shut in by a wall or fence, often with fruit trees,^[9] and a charter of 1225 grants a whole clausa with its vines and trees.^[7] Köbler records it for a female recluse in the Life of Liutbirg, about 870–880,^[5] and a Hungarian account of 1524 uses it for the locks of a cupboard.^[10]

Timeline

• end of 2nd/beginning of 1st century BC – Titinius uses it of a storeroom.^[4][1][5]
• 2nd half of the 1st century BC – The Moretum tells of a countryman opening the storeroom.^[4][1][5]
• c. 870–880 – The Life of Liutbirg uses it for a female recluse.^[5]
• 927 – A Catalan charter uses it for an enclosed plot of land.^[9]
• 1225 – A charter grants a whole clausa with its vines.^[7]
• 1524 – A Hungarian account uses it for the locks of a cupboard.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A closed part of a house; a storeroom, closet.^[1][2][3][4]
2. (Medieval Latin) A fence, an enclosure.^[6][7]
3. (Medieval Latin) An enclosed piece of land, a close.^[6][7][9]
4. (Medieval Latin) A monk's cell; a hermitage.^[6][7][8]
5. (Medieval Latin) A female recluse.^[5]
6. (Medieval Latin) A weir in a river; a dike.^[6]
7. (Medieval Latin) A lock or bar.^[10]

Usage notes

Medieval Latin also had clausa for a passage of a text or a clause, which Köbler derives from clausula;^[5][6][7] for a mountain pass the usual word is clūsa, which Niermeyer and Du Cange treat as the same word.^[6][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
2. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
3. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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 c d e f g Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e f g h du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b c Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis Cataloniae (1960–; online ed. 2025), Barcelona: CSIC / Institució Milà i Fontanals, gmlc.imf.csic.es
10. ^ a b c Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE