conditorium

Forms

conditōrium n (genitive conditōriī or conditōrī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin condō (“to put away, store; to bury”) + -tōrium.^[2][1][3] De Vaan counts that verb among the compounds that may contain Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put”), though in such compounds the root meaning “to give” cannot always be told apart.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Pliny the Elder,^[5] of a coffin or receptacle for a dead body.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it post-Augustan.^[3] It was used for a place where anything is stored: Tertullian has it in that sense, and Ammianus uses it of a storehouse for siege engines.^[6][3][7] More often it was a resting place for the dead: a coffin or receptacle for the body or the ashes in Pliny the Elder, Suetonius and Julius Valerius,^[3][6] and a tomb or sepulchre in general in Pliny the Elder, Curtius, Petronius, Pliny the Younger and inscriptions.^[6][3][7] The OLD gives only the sense “tomb”.^[2]

In medieval Latin it was a repository in the papal liturgy, a tomb, and a family burial place;^[8] Einhard quotes an epitaph that begins sub hoc conditōriō situm est corpus Karolī, “under this tomb lies the body of Charles”.^[8] The Ecclesiastical Latin dictionary glosses it “storeroom”.^[9]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a coffin and of a tomb.^[3][6][5]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it of a tomb.^[3][6][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of a coffin.^[3][6][5]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of a repository.^[6][5]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus uses it of a storehouse for siege engines.^[3][7][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A repository, storehouse.^[3][6][7]
2. A coffin, a receptacle for a dead body or its ashes.^[3][6]
3. A tomb, sepulchre.^[2][3]
4. (Medieval Latin) A family burial place.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson