farinarius

Forms

farīnārius (feminine farīnāria, neuter farīnārium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin farīna + -ārius, from the word for “flour”.^[2][1] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of far “emmer, grain”, beside farīna itself, which he traces to ⟨farrīna⟩.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cato's work on farming,^[3][4] where cribrum farinarium is a flour sieve.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it is rare: Pliny the Elder uses it of the same kind of sieve.^[7][5]

In the early Middle Ages it was used as a noun for a mill,^[8][9] in laws and charters: the Merovingian Lex Salica speaks of breaking the sluice of another's mill.^[8] Charters of King Charles and King Louis for the monastery of Arles list mills among its property in 869 and 878.^[9] It also meant a miller,^[10][8] and as an adjective “of a mill”.^[8] Wiktionary lists its descendants in the Romance languages, among them Italian farinaio, French farinier and Romanian făinar.^[1]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato speaks of a flour sieve.^[5][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a sieve.^[7][4]
• third quarter of the 8th century – The Lex Salica uses it as a noun.^[4]
• 814 – The Freising traditions use it as an adjective of mill sites.^[8]
• 869 – A charter of King Charles for the monastery of Arles lists mills among its property.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or for flour.^[2][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) Of a mill.^[8]

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) A mill, flour mill.^[8][9]
2. (Medieval Latin) A miller.^[10][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b c d Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis Cataloniae (1960–; online ed. 2025), Barcelona: CSIC / Institució Milà i Fontanals, gmlc.imf.csic.es
10. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill