epibata

Forms

epibata m (genitive epibatae); first declension^[1][2] Gaffiot also gives the Greek form ⟨epibatēs⟩, and an inscription has ⟨epibeta⟩.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐπιβάτης (epibátēs, “one who mounts; marine, passenger”),^[1][4][5] from ἐπιβαίνω (epibaínō, “to go upon, mount”), formed from ἐπί (epí, “upon”) and βαίνω (baínō, “to go”).^[5]

Isidore of Seville explains it as a Greek name for what Latin calls ⟨superveniēns⟩, one who comes on board.^[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in the Bellum Africum, the Bellum Alexandrinum and Vitruvius,^[3] for a soldier serving on board ship, as opposed to the rowers.^[3][1]

Semantic evolution

In the Bellum Africum a fleet is manned with rowers and marines, and in the Bellum Alexandrinum two ships are stripped of all their marines;^[3] Lewis & Short note that the native Latin term was classiārius mīles.^[7] An inscription from Upper Moesia names a legionary who served as an epibeta.^[3] Lewis & Short also cite Hyginus for the rider of a camel.^[7]

Later it was used of anyone who boards a ship as a passenger, especially in Christian comparisons and allegories;^[3] Isidore describes the epibata as one who has no business on board but pays his fare to cross to other lands.^[6] British medieval writers used it for a marine, a fighting man, a passenger and, in glossaries, a layman.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of a marine.^[1][3][5]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville describes the epibata as a passenger.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A soldier serving on board ship, a marine.^[1][7]
2. The rider of a camel.^[7]
3. (Late Latin) A passenger on a ship.^[3][6]
4. (Medieval Latin) A layman.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
7. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press