coemeterium

Forms

coemētērium n (genitive coemētēriī or coemētērī); second declension^[1] The manuscripts almost always write cimiterium or cimeterium, also cymiterium and cymeterium;^[2] Georges calls cīmītērium the vulgar form.^[3] Medieval texts add cemeterium and many other spellings.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κοιμητήριον (koimētḗrion, “sleeping place, dormitory”),^[1][6][3] from κοιμάω (koimáō, “to put to sleep”).^[1][7] Köbler and Etymonline trace the Greek verb to Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- (“to lie”).^[7][5] Latin glossaries render it “dormitory” and “resting place of bodies”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It was a word of the Christians:^[2] its first author is Tertullian, who tells in De anima of a body in a cemetery that made room for another laid beside it.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

The Greek word for a sleeping chamber had also been used of the sleep of death, and early Christian writers were the first to use it for a burial ground.^[6][5] Cyprian reports that Pope Xistus was executed in coemeterio,^[2][3] and the word appears on inscriptions, including one dated 527.^[2] A cemetery was often part of a church, or a place marked by a church built over it, so that the word could mean a church;^[2] the Council of Elvira forbade women to keep vigil in cemeteries.^[9]

In the Middle Ages it meant a catacomb, a burial chapel, and above all the churchyard;^[4] the enclosed, consecrated ground around a church, which gave the right of asylum, and the right of burial itself.^[10][4] English writers use it from Aldhelm and Bede on, glossing it with Old English licburg and byrgenstowe.^[11][5] Italian cimitero, French cimetière^[2][3] and English cemetery continue it.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of a Christian burial ground.^[2][7]
• beginning of the 3rd century–258 AD – Cyprian reports Xistus' death in a cemetery.^[2][7]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm writes of a tomb in a cemetery.^[11][7]
• late 14th century – Borrowed into English, through Old French, as cimiterie, later cemetery.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A cemetery, burial ground.^[6][3][12]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A catacomb; a church built over a burial place.^[2][4]
3. (Medieval Latin) A churchyard; the consecrated enclosure of a church, a place of asylum.^[10][4]
4. (Medieval Latin) The right of burial.^[10][4]

Related words

• English cemetery

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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
9. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
10. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
11. ^ a b 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. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson