cubicularius

Forms

cubiculārius (feminine cubiculāria, neuter cubiculārium); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Inscriptions also have cubuculārius and the syncopated cubīclārius and cubūclārius.^[2] The genitive plural cubiculāris in Suetonius is a variant reading.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin cubiculum + -ārius,^[4][1] from cubiculum (“bedroom”), itself from cubō (“to lie down”).^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero is the first to use it, as a noun for the servant who looked after his master's bedroom: in the Verrines he tells his opponents that their bedroom servants are fond of a certain man.^[3][2][5]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it meant “of the bedroom”: Martial uses it in the titles of epigrams, one on a bedroom lamp, and Pliny the Elder uses it of bed covers.^[3] Suetonius names the chief of the emperor's bedchamber staff decurio cubiculariōrum.^[3][2] In Late Latin the bedchamber servants of the imperial court were officials;^[6] Ammianus Marcellinus speaks of those set over the duties of the bedchamber,^[6] and Jordanes has the feminine for a chambermaid.^[7]

In the Church it meant a private chamberlain,^[8] and in medieval courts the cubicularius was one of the officers of the prince's household; at the French court he ranked below the chamberlain in chief.^[9]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the noun for a bedroom servant.^[3][5]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses the adjective in the titles of epigrams.^[3][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius mentions the head of the bedchamber servants.^[3][5]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus writes of the duties of the bedchamber.^[6][5]
• c. 500 AD – Fulgentius uses the adjective of bedroom doors.^[2][5]
• Middle Ages – It names a chamberlain at princely courts.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to a bedroom.^[3][2]

Noun

1. A servant of the bedchamber, a valet.^[4][3]
2. (Late Latin, feminine) A chambermaid.^[7]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A private chamberlain.^[8]
4. (Medieval Latin) A chamberlain, an officer of a prince's household.^[9]

Word family

• excubicularius

References

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