convivium

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [kɔnˈwiː.wi.ũː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [koɱˈviː.vi.um]^[1]

Forms

convīvium n (genitive convīviī or convīvī); second declension^[1] Inscriptions have comviviom and convibium.^[2]

Etymology

It is from convīvō (“to live together, dine together”) (or convīva “guest”) with -ium, from con- and vīvō (“to live”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces ⟨vīvō⟩ to Proto-Italic *gʷīwe/o- (“to live”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷíh₃-we/o- (“to live”), cognate with Oscan ⟨bivus⟩ “alive” and Sanskrit जीवति (jī́vati, “lives”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's earliest source is Plautus, and Gaffiot cites Plautus' Menaechmi for a meal.^[5][6] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short take its literal sense to be a living together, hence a meal in company; in use it meant a dinner party, banquet, feast, as in Cicero, and in Petronius and Seneca the company of guests.^[3][2][6]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it means banquet.^[7] Medieval Latin used it for a meal owed to a lord, and British Medieval Latin for the obligatory provision of a feast.^[8][9] It survives as Italian convivio and Spanish convivio.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[5][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a banquet.^[6][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of the guests.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dinner party, banquet, feast.^[2][3]
2. The company at a feast.^[6]
3. (Medieval Latin) A meal owed to a lord.^[8]

Related words

• convīva
• convīvor
• vīvō
• English convivial

Usage notes

Isidore of Seville notes that the Greeks named the feast from drinking together, the Romans more correctly from living together (convīctus).^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
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
10. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).