crypta

Forms

crypta f (genitive cryptae); first declension^[1] Also spelled crupta (in inscriptions), cripta and crepta.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κρυπτή (kruptḗ),^[2][1][4] the feminine of κρυπτός (kruptós, “hidden”), an adjective of the verb “to hide”.^[1][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Varro's Menippean satires,^[5][7] where a crypta is named beside a xystus.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was above all a covered gallery or arcade, as in country houses, temples and theatres.^[2][7] Vitruvius uses it of a vaulted storage passage,^[7][8] Juvenal of the great drain under the Subura,^[7][8] and the crypta Neapolitana was the tunnel between Naples and Puteoli.^[2][9] In Petronius it is perhaps an underground room for religious rites (cuius vos sacrum ante cryptam turbastis, “whose rite you disturbed before the crypt”).^[2][8] Sidonius uses it of the stalls for horses in the circus.^[8][7]

Prudentius and the Vulgate use it of an underground vault or cave.^[7] In Christian and medieval Latin it named a catacomb and the crypt of a church,^[10][11][12] and also a cave, den or secret passage.^[12] English took it over in the early 15th century as cripte, “grotto, cavern”.^[6]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a covered gallery.^[5][7]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of a vaulted storeroom.^[7][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca writes of the crypta Neapolitana.^[9][5]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it, perhaps of a room for rites.^[2][5]
• 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius uses it of an underground vault.^[7][5]
• c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius uses it of stalls in the circus.^[8][5]
• early 15th century – English borrows it as cripte.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A covered gallery or passage, an arcade.^[2][7]
2. A tunnel, as the crypta Neapolitana between Naples and Puteoli; an underground drain.^[2][7]
3. A vaulted storeroom.^[7][8]
4. An underground room for religious rites, a vault.^[2][8]
5. (Late Latin) A stall for horses in the circus.^[8]
6. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A catacomb; the crypt of a church.^[10][11][12]
7. (Medieval Latin) A cave, den or secret passage.^[12]

Word family

• cryptārius

Related words

• English crypt

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
11. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
12. ^ a b c d 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