coopertorium

Forms

coopertōrium n (genitive coopertōriī or coopertōrī); second declension^[1] Also spelled ⟨copertorium⟩ and ⟨cupertorium⟩.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin cooperiō (“to cover over”) + -tōrium.^[5][1] The TLL derives it from the participle ⟨coopertus⟩.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The jurist Scaevola, in the Digest, is its first author, listing coverings together with three tunics.^[5][2][6]

Semantic evolution

In Late Latin it meant any covering: the Itala uses it for the covering put over the altar in Numbers and for a man's cloak in Exodus,^[2] Pelagonius tells the horse doctor to let coverings hang down to the ground, and the Latin Soranus warns against weighing down an infant with too many.^[2] Gregory of Tours writes of clothes touching the cover of a tomb, and Gregory the Great of a cover for an altar.^[2]

In Medieval Latin it was above all a bedspread or blanket:^[3][7][8] a letter of Cuthbert among those of Boniface thanks the sender for a many-coloured coverlet against the cold,^[7] and monastic customs fix how many each monk might have and what fur might line them.^[7][9] It also meant a lid, a veil, an altar-cloth, a roof or thatch, a book-cover, a covert of woodland, and the linen or iron covering of a man or a horse, a cuirass or caparison.^{[3][7][8][10][11]} Its Romance descendants include Catalan, Spanish and Portuguese cobertor and Romanian cârpător,^[1] and Old High German borrowed it as kuberturi.^[4]

Timeline

• Classical Latin – The jurist Scaevola lists coverings with tunics.^[5][2]
• after 220 AD – The Itala uses it for the covering of the altar.^[2][4]
• 360 AD – Pelagonius uses it of a horse's coverings.^[2][4]
• 538/539–594 AD – Gregory of Tours writes of the cover of a tomb.^[2][4]
• 764 – A letter of Cuthbert thanks Boniface's circle for a coverlet.^[7]
• 854 – A Catalan charter lists a silk coverlet.^[12]
• 1093 – A Hungarian record lists seventeen linen altar covers.^[11]
• 1188 – English pipe rolls pay for caparisons of the king's mules.^[7]
• 1212 – Linen cuirasses are bought for the king.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A covering, cover; a garment.^{[5][13][14][15][6][16]}
2. (Medieval Latin) A bedspread, coverlet, blanket.^{[3][7][8][12][10]}
3. (Medieval Latin) A lid; a veil; an altar-cloth.^[3][8][11]
4. (Medieval Latin) Roofing, a roof; thatch.^[3][7][10]
5. (Medieval Latin) Armour: a cuirass; a caparison of a horse.^[3][7]
6. (Medieval Latin) A book-cover; a case or cover.^{[8][7][11][10][17]}
7. (Medieval Latin) The covert of a forest.^[7]

Related words

• cooperiō
• coopertūra

Usage notes

Vegetius has an adjective coopertōrius, used of warm cloaks for covering a horse.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c 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 f g Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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
8. ^ a b c d e Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 d Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
11. ^ a b c d Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
12. ^ a b Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis Cataloniae (1960–; online ed. 2025), Barcelona: CSIC / Institució Milà i Fontanals, gmlc.imf.csic.es
13. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
15. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
16. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
17. ^ Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de