contabulatio

Forms

contabulātiō f (genitive contabulātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin contabulō (“to cover with boards”) + -tiō,^[2][1][3] a verb formed from con- and tabula (“board, plank”).^[2] De Vaan finds the origin of the noun uncertain.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Caesar has it first,^[5][3] four times in one chapter of the Civil War, for the plank flooring of a tower, which the builders covered with bricks and clay.^[6][3][7]

Semantic evolution

It is a rare word;^[6] the TLL equates it with contīgnātiō, a floor or storey of joists.^[3] Vitruvius uses it of a boarded covering that protected what lay beneath, and Apuleius of the boarding of a stage.^[3][8] Apuleius also transfers it to the folds of a garment.^[6][8][7] A 16th-century record from Cambridge uses it of wooden panelling.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of the floors of a tower.^[3][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of a boarded covering.^[3][5]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of a stage and of the folds of a garment.^[6][8][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A floor or roof of boards, flooring, planking; a storey.^[2][6]
2. (transferred) The folds of a garment.^[6][8]
3. (Medieval Latin) Panelling.^[9]

Related words

• tabulātum

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ 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