emblema

Forms

emblēma n (genitive emblēmatis); third declension^[1] The dative and ablative plural is emblēmatīs.^[2][3] Cicero has the genitive plural emblēmatum.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἔμβλημα (émblēma, “insertion, inlay”),^[2][3][5][1] a noun from ἐμβάλλω (embállō, “to throw in, insert”), which is formed from ἐν (en, “in”) and βάλλω (bállō, “to throw”).^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in a line of Lucilius, quoted by Cicero, about little tesserae set in an inlaid mosaic (emblēmate vermiculātō).^[2][3][8]

Semantic evolution

It named inlaid work: a mosaic pavement (Lucilius, Varro) and the relief panels set into silver vessels, which Cicero mentions often in the Verrines and distinguishes from crustae.^[2][3] Pliny the Elder mentions a bowl with an inlay of Ulysses and Diomedes.^[2] Quintilian uses it figuratively for a passage taken from elsewhere and inserted into a speech.^[8] The grammarian Pompeius has a feminine emblēma, -ae.^[8]

Ecclesiastical Latin uses it for an emblem.^[9] English emblem first meant a relief or raised ornament on a vessel (1580s), from this Latin word.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it of an inlaid mosaic.^[2][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it for a mosaic pavement.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for the relief inlays of silver vessels.^[2][6]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it for an inserted passage.^[8][6]
• 1580s – English borrows it as emblem.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Inlaid work, a mosaic pavement.^[2][3]
2. An inlaid relief set into a silver vessel.^[2][3]
3. (figurative) A passage inserted from elsewhere.^[8]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) An emblem.^[9]

Related words

• English emblem

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson