ergastulum

Forms

ergastulum n (genitive ergastulī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐργαστήριον (ergastḗrion, “workshop”), adapted to Latin, as the OLD has it;^[2][1][3] Wiktionary and Köbler also call that origin probable.^[2][1][3] The TLL reports this view of Walde and Hofmann and notes that Leumann explained the form differently.^[4] Lewis & Short derive it from the Greek verb ἐργάζομαι (ergázomai, “to work”),^[5] the source of the Greek noun.^[1] Döderlein gives the same verb or εἴργω (eírgō, “to shut in”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[3] who uses it in the speeches for Cluentius and for Rabirius.^[5] Lewis & Short also quote a masculine ergastulus, the overseer of such a house, from Lucilius.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It was a prison on a large estate, where slaves who were unruly or not to be trusted were sent to work in chains;^[2] Columella, Livy and Suetonius use it.^[5] Döderlein contrasts it with carcer, the part of the prison meant for citizens: the ergastulum was the house of correction for slaves.^[6] In the plural it also means the inmates, a gang of slaves from such a prison: Caesar, Brutus in a letter to Cicero, Pliny the Elder and Florus use it so,^[5][2] and the elder Seneca speaks of rich men who work their empty lands with gangs of freeborn men.^[2] The Vulgate has it in Exodus.^[5] Stelten gives "prison, workhouse" for Church Latin,^[7] and Niermeyer a strong-room in Medieval Latin.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius has the masculine ergastulus for the overseer.^[5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the slave prison.^[5][3]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of its inmates.^[5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate, in Exodus.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A prison on a large estate, where unruly slaves were sent to work in chain gangs; a workhouse, house of correction.^[2][5][1]
2. (chiefly plural) The inmates of such a prison, a gang of slaves.^[2][5]
3. (Medieval Latin) A strong-room.^[8]

Word family

• ergastularis
• ergastulārius

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill