cratera

Forms

crātēra f (genitive crātērae); first declension^[1] Beside it Latin has the masculine crātēr, the Greek form, mostly used by poets.^[2][3] A by-form is crēterra, used by Naevius, Varro and Cicero in his letters.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κρατήρ (kratḗr, “mixing bowl”), which became a feminine of the first declension in Latin.^[3][2][1] Servius and Isidore of Seville note that the Greek word is masculine while Latin made it feminine, and Priscian gives it as an example of a noun that changed gender in Latin.^[2] Isidore explained the name from a Greek verb meaning to hold, because such bowls were first made of interwoven twigs holding one another.^[2] Etymonline traces the Greek word to Proto-Indo-European *kere- (“to mix”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and the TLL record it first in Naevius.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

It is the mixing bowl in which wine was mixed with water.^[4][5] According to the TLL the masculine crater is frequent in the poets, while cratera is the form of prose; among poets only Naevius, Ennius, Cicero's Aratea, Horace and Persius use it.^[2] Cicero, Livy and Curtius have it in prose.^[4] Like crater it also named the constellation of the Bowl.^[8] In Medieval Latin it is a drinking bowl or cup.^[9][7]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in the Verrines.^[4][7]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it in the Odes and the Satires.^[2][7]
• c. 400 AD – Servius notes that the Latin form is feminine.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mixing bowl for wine and water.^[3][4]
2. The constellation of the Bowl.^[8]
3. (Medieval Latin) A drinking bowl or cup.^[9]

Related words

• crātēr

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T. (1890), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: American Book Company
9. ^ 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