dormitorius

Forms

dormītōrius (feminine dormītōria, neuter dormītōrium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin dormiō (“to sleep”) + -tōrius.^[1][2][3] Georges derives it from dormītor (“sleeper”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Pliny the Elder,^[1][3] who speaks of a bedroom (cubiculum dormitorium) and uses the neuter as a noun for a bedroom.^[1][5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin the adjective described what was meant or used for sleeping: Pliny the Younger speaks of a sleeping wing (membrum dormitorium), and the jurists speak of a sleeping carriage (carrucha dormitoria).^[1][6][4] The neuter dormitorium became a noun for a bedroom,^[1] and in Christian Latin also a resting place of the dead.^[4]

Medieval Latin kept the adjective for things belonging to sleep^[7][8] and used the noun for a dormitory.^[7]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a bedroom, and the neuter as a noun.^[1][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Designed or used for sleeping.^[1][6]
2. (neuter as noun) A bedroom; see dormitorium.^[1][4]

Word family

• dormītōrium

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b 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. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften