coriaceus

Forms

coriāceus (feminine coriācea, neuter coriāceum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin corium (“leather”) + -āceus in Late Latin.^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ammianus Marcellinus is the first to use it, of boats made of leather used for bridging.^[4][2][5]

Semantic evolution

In Late Latin it is found also in the medical writer Placitus, of a leather cloth.^[2][3] The TLL lists Italian corazza and French cuirasse as its descendants.^[2] Medieval and Neo-Latin writers kept the sense “made of leather”: British records speak of a leather purse, and Thomas More of leather sails.^[6][7]

Timeline

• c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus writes of leather boats.^[4][5]
• 1st half of the 5th century AD – Placitus writes of a leather cloth.^[2][5]
• 1573 – A British record mentions gold pieces in a leather purse.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made of leather, leathern.^[4][2][3]

Related words

• corium
• English coriaceous

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum / Slovník středověké latiny v českých zemích (1977–), Prague: Academia; electronic version, Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences