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creatura

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word creatura

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 160–220 AD, Tertullian
Ultimate origin
Latin creō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin creo
French créer
Italian creare
Latin creatura
English creature
Italian creatura
From the same root
Latin creatrix ← creo
Latin procreo ← creo

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kre.aːˈtuː.ra], [kre.aːˈtuː.raː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kre.aˈtuː.ra], [kre.aˈtuː.ra][1]

Forms

creātūra f (genitive creātūrae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin creō (“to create, make”) + -tūra.[2][3][4] Wiktionary explains it as the feminine of the future participle used as a noun.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short's first example is Tertullian's Apologeticum, where it means a created thing, a creature.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

It is a Late and Christian Latin word, used only of concrete things:[3] a created being or thing, and the whole of creation, as in the Vulgate's Dominus totius creaturae (“Lord of all creation”, Judith 9:17) and Christ as principium creaturae Dei (Revelation 3:14).[3] Prudentius has it in his Hamartigenia,[3] and Commodian scans its ⟨a⟩ short in verse.[2] A Merovingian Christian inscription spells it criatura.[2]

Medieval Latin kept both senses, “creation” and “creature”,[5][6] and English took the word from Old French around 1300 as creature, “anything created”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of created things.[3][4]
  • 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius uses it.[3][4]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it for creatures and for creation.[3][4]
  • c. 1300 – English borrows creature from Old French.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Late Latin) A created thing or being, a creature.[3][5][6][1]
  2. (Late Latin) Creation, all that is created.[3][5][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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 h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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 Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com

Borrowed into

Cite this entry

“Creatura.” Etymologically, 23 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/creatura. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·