Etymologically
Log in

emblema

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 14:59. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛmˈbɫeː.ma][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [emˈblɛː.ma][1]

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]
  • 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