eschara

Forms

eschăra f (genitive eschărae); first declension^[1][2] It is also spelled escara, scara and schara.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐσχάρα (eskhára, “hearth, sacrificial hearth”),^[4][1][5] a word whose further origin is unclear.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Vitruvius, in the 1st century BC,^[5] is the first to use it, apparently still as a Greek word, for the base of a ballista and of a siege shed.^[3][1]

Semantic evolution

In medicine it named the crust that forms on a wound after cauterizing, or on an ulcer of the eyes or the throat.^[4][3] Celsus and Scribonius Largus still present it as the Greek name for such crusts,^[3][4] and it is used later by Caelius Aurelianus and Theodorus Priscianus, who speak of it falling off.^[3] The medical sense continued in medieval Latin, where it meant an eschar or scar.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius names the base of a ballista so.^[3][5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus calls the crusts after cauterizing by this Greek name.^[3][5]
• c. 47 AD – Scribonius Largus uses it of crusts on sore eyes.^[3][5]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus waits for the crust of an ulcer to fall off.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The base or pedestal of a war engine.^[1][3][7]
2. (medicine) A scab or crust on a cauterized wound or an ulcer, an eschar.^[4][3][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon 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 j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn