curia

Forms

cūria f (genitive cūriae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is usually explained as ⟨*ko-wir-ijā⟩ “assembly of men”, from a compound of com- (“with”) and vir (“man”), like convīvium and coniugium.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary gives an Old Latin ⟨coviria⟩ from Proto-Italic *kowiriom.^[1] Since ⟨com-⟩ before ⟨v⟩ usually gives ⟨con-⟩, de Vaan thinks the development is older; the Volscian word ⟨couehriu⟩, perhaps for a sacred state institution, may be cognate.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[2][5] who uses it for a Greek ward: noster nostrae quī est magister cūriae, “the master of our ward”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Cūria is one of the thirty divisions of the Roman people said to have been set up by Romulus, by which the comitia cūriāta voted.^[3][6][1] It is a building for assemblies, above all the Senate house at Rome (Cicero: to besiege the Senate house with swords) and the council house of other towns; by metonymy it is the Senate itself, a local senate, and a meeting of the Senate.^[3][6][1]

In medieval Latin it is the court of the emperor, the pope or the king, and a palace;^[7][1] Church Latin uses it for the Curia, the officials who help the pope or a bishop govern.^[8] English curia comes from it about 1600.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: magister cūriae.^[3][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato of the distance from the Senate house.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero: obsidēre cum gladiīs cūriam.^[3][5]
• c. 1600 – English curia.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A curia, one of the thirty divisions of the Roman people.^[3][6][1]
2. A meeting hall; the Senate house.^[3][6][1]
3. The Senate; a local senate.^[3][1]
4. (Medieval Latin) A court (imperial, papal or royal); a palace.^[7][1]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The Curia, the officials of a pope or bishop.^[8]

Word family

• cūriālis
• cūriātim
• cūriātus
• cūriō
• excūriō

Related words

• vir
• Quirīs
• English curia

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com