Etymologically
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contignatio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɔn.tɪŋˈnaː.ti.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kon.tiɲˈɲat.t͡si.o][1]

Forms

contignātiō f (genitive contignātiōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin contignō (“to furnish with a structure of joists”) + -tiō.[2][1][3] A Latin glossary explains it as a joining of beams, a beam being called tignum.[3] De Vaan traces that noun to Proto-Italic *teg/k-no- (“plank, timber”) and thinks it more likely to come from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg- (“to cover”), the root of tēctum (“roof”) and tēgula (“roof tile”), than from a root meaning “to fashion”.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and Lewis and Short record it first in Caesar,[5][6] who describes two beams laid across to hold up the contignatio that was to serve as the roof of a tower, and a mound of a new kind made of two brick walls joined by a timber floor.[3]

Semantic evolution

The OLD defines it as a term of architecture: a horizontal structure of joists and boards forming a roof or the floor of an upper storey, hence a storey.[2] The Bellum Alexandrinum says that the buildings of Alexandria are without timber floors, and Livy reports as a prodigy that an ox in the cattle market climbed to the third storey of its own accord.[3][7] Vitruvius uses it often, of how many floors a brick wall can carry and of the floors of basilicas and porticoes;[3][7] Pliny the Elder speaks of the roof timbers of old temples.[3][7] Columella, Palladius, the jurists and Ammianus Marcellinus also use it, and in the Vulgate it renders the Greek word for the roofing of houses.[3] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means woodwork.[8] Medieval writers in Britain use it for flooring and an upper storey.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of the timber floor or roof of siege works.[3][5]
  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it often of floors and storeys.[3][5]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy tells of an ox that climbed to the third storey.[3][5]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of the roofing of houses.[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A structure of joists and boards forming a roof or the floor of an upper storey; flooring.[2][6]
  2. A storey, floor.[2][6][7]
  3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Woodwork.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d 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 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 e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  9. ^ 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