Etymologically
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frumentarius

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [fruː.mɛnˈtaː.ri.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [fru.menˈtaː.ri.us][1]

Forms

frūmentārius (feminine frūmentāria, neuter frūmentārium); first/second-declension adjective[1] As a noun: frūmentārius m (genitive frūmentāriī); second declension.[1][2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin frūmentum (“grain, corn”) + -ārius.[2][1] Köbler connects ⟨frūmentum⟩ with fruor (“to enjoy”).[3] The noun is the adjective used of a person.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Pseudolus, of corn dealers: amīca es frūmentāriīs, “you are a friend to the corn merchants”, who all have huge heaps of grain at home.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it is “of corn”: Cato has the corn accounts and corn-producing land, and rēs frūmentāria is the grain supply or provisions of an army or a city, as Cicero's fear and shortage of corn.[2][4] A lēx frūmentāria is a law on the distribution of cheap or free corn, as that of Gaius Gracchus.[2]

As a noun it is first a corn dealer, then in the army a soldier sent out to find corn, a forager (Hirtius), and later a member of a special corps used as couriers and agents.[2][1] In Medieval Latin it is the officer in charge of a manor's granary.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of corn dealers.[2][3]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato of corn accounts and corn land.[2][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of the corn supply and the corn law of Gaius Gracchus.[2][3]
  • c. 50 BC – Hirtius of foragers.[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of corn or grain; corn-producing.[2][1]
  2. rēs frūmentāria: the corn supply, provisions.[2][4]
  3. Relating to the distribution of corn, lēx frūmentāria, a corn law.[2]

Noun

  1. A corn dealer, grain merchant.[2][1]
  2. (military) A forager; a member of the corps of frūmentāriī, couriers and agents.[2][1]
  3. (Medieval Latin) The keeper of a manor's granary.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill