Etymologically
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curulis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kʊˈruː.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kuˈruː.lis][1]

Forms

curūlis (neuter curūle); third-declension two-termination adjective[1] It is sometimes spelled currūlis.[2][3]

Etymology

Many since antiquity have taken it as the same word as currūlis (“of a chariot”), and the OLD derives it, perhaps, from an unattested ⟨*currūlis⟩, from Latin currus (“chariot”), with the suffix ⟨-ūlis⟩;[4][3][2][1] Festus already connected it with the chariot.[4][3][2][1] De Vaan traces currus to Proto-Italic *korso- (“chariot”) and Proto-Indo-European *kr̥s-o- (“running, chariot”), from the root of currō (“to run”).[5] Both the OLD and the TLL ask whether the word came instead, with the curule chair itself, from Etruscan.[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first examples are an early honorary inscription granting a man and his descendants the place of a curule chair, and Cato's Origines, of a man who had held curule office.[4] Köbler dates it from Plautus.[6]

Semantic evolution

It belongs above all to the sella curulis, the chair of state inlaid with ivory used by the consuls, praetors and curule aediles, and to sit in it is to hold curule office.[4][1] By metonymy it is the office or the magistrate: Cicero writes that thirteen of a family held the curule chair.[4] Of magistrates it means of curule rank.[4] Livy uses it, apparently, of the horses provided for the chariots at the games, and Lewis & Short give the sense of a chariot.[4][2]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato of a curule magistracy.[4][6]
  • 1st century BC – Novius jokes about sitting in the curule chair.[4][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a family's curule offices.[4][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of chariot horses for the games.[4][6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. sella curulis, the curule chair of the higher magistrates; to sit in it, to hold curule office.[4][2][1]
  2. By metonymy, a curule office or magistrate.[4]
  3. Of magistrates, of curule rank.[4][2]
  4. Of a ceremonial chariot.[4][2][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de