focarius

Forms

focārius m (genitive focāriī or focārī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin focus (“hearth”) + -ārius.^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun first appears in Ulpian, quoted in the Digest, for a kitchen servant, named beside the atriarius among those who do menial work.^[3][2][4]

Semantic evolution

The feminine focāria meant a kitchen maid in the jurists Pomponius and Paulus, and in the Code of Justinian the housekeeper or concubine of a soldier.^[5][6] The adjective “of the hearth” appears in glosses, where petra focāria is a flint.^[3] In Medieval Latin the adjective was used of firewood and of things that strike sparks, and the noun of a keeper of the hearth, a salt-boiler, or a servant who brought wood and tended the kitchen fire.^[7][8] In Poland census focarius was a tax paid on each household (“smoke”).^[9]

Timeline

• before 223 AD – Ulpian, quoted in the Digest, uses focārius for a kitchen servant.^[3][5][4]
• first half of the 3rd century AD – Paulus' Sententiae have focāria, a kitchen maid.^[6][4]
• 528–534 AD – The Code of Justinian uses focāria for a soldier's housekeeper.^[5][4]
• c. 977 – A Freising charter speaks of ligna focāria, firewood.^[7]
• 1375 – A Silesian document names the hearth tax census focarius.^[9]
• 1859 – English borrows French foyer, which goes back to the neuter focārium used as a noun.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A kitchen servant; feminine focāria, a kitchen maid, cook.^[2][6]
2. (Late Latin) feminine focāria: a soldier's housekeeper or concubine.^[6][5]
3. (Medieval Latin) A keeper of the hearth.^[8]
4. (Medieval Latin) A salt-boiler.^[8]

Adjective

1. Of the hearth or fire; used as fuel.^[5][7]
2. (Medieval Latin) Striking sparks: petra focāria, a flint.^[3][7]

Word family

• focāria

Related words

• English foyer

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com