Etymologically
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coopertorium

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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]

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