Etymology and origin of the Latin word cryptoporticus
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Compound
- First attested
- 61/62–before 117 AD, Pliny the Younger
- Borrowed from
- Ancient Greek κρυπτός
- Ultimate origin
- Ancient Greek (κρυπτός)
Forms
cryptoporticus f (genitive cryptoporticūs); fourth declension[1]
Etymology
Its first part is borrowed from Ancient Greek κρυπτός (kruptós, “hidden”), its second porticus (“colonnade”): a hybrid compound.[2][3][4][5]
Earliest recorded meaning
Köbler dates it from the Younger Pliny,[5] who describes a covered gallery in his villa almost as large as a public building.[4][3]
Semantic evolution
It is a covered gallery, cloister or vaulted passage; the TLL notes that it means much the same as crypta.[2][3][4]
Timeline
Meanings
Noun
Related words
- crypta
- porticus
References
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Cryptoporticus.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/cryptoporticus. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.
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