denarius

Forms

dēnārius m (genitive dēnāriī or dēnārī); second declension^[1] The genitive plural is usually dēnāriōrum, but dēnārium in the partitive genitive, and a neuter dēnārium is also found.^[2] It is abbreviated den and written with the sign X̶.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from dēnī (“ten each”) with the suffix -ārius; the noun is short for nummus (“coin”) with the adjective, the coin “containing ten” asses.^[2][3][4][1] De Vaan derives the numeral decem (“ten”) from Proto-Italic *dekm and Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥ (“ten”), cognate with Oscan δεκμας (dekmas, “tithe”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Varro and Cicero on, perhaps already in Plautus;^[3] Varro writes that a libella is a tenth of the nummus dēnārius.^[2]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it is containing or related to the number ten, as fistula dēnāria, a pipe ten inches round, in Vitruvius and Pliny the Elder.^[2][6] With nummus or alone it is the denarius, the silver coin first worth ten asses, as Livy's Campanians ordered to pay 450 denarii; a Pompeian inscription seems to use it of bread worth a denarius.^[2][1][4] It is also a measure of weight, as in Celsus, and dēnārius aureus is a gold coin worth 25 silver denarii, as in Petronius.^[2]

Church Latin has dēnārius Sānctī Petrī, Peter's pence.^[7] Köbler finds it throughout the early medieval law codes and capitularies.^[8] English denarius was borrowed in the 1570s.^[4]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro of the nummus dēnārius.^[2][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero.^[3][8]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a fine in denarii.^[2][8]
• before 66 AD – Petronius of gold denarii.^[2][8]
• 1570s – Borrowed into English.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A denarius, a Roman silver coin, worth ten asses.^{[2][6][1][7][4]}
2. A measure of weight;^[2] dēnārius aureus, a gold coin worth 25 denarii.^[2]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) dēnārius Sānctī Petrī, Peter's pence.^[7]

Adjective

1. Containing ten, of ten, denary.^[2][6][1]

Related words

• dēnī
• decem
• sēstertius
• as
• English denarius

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de