glarea

Forms

glārea f (genitive glāreae); first declension^[1] The spelling glaria occurs in an inscription.^[2][3]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][4] De Vaan suggests that it shares the root of grānum (“grain”), with dissimilation of /r/ to /l/: Proto-Indo-European *ǵrH-ro- would have given Proto-Italic *grāros (“pebble, grain”), whose derivative *grārejos (“of pebbles”) became *glārejos.^[5] He adds that this depends on the first meaning of the word for grain: if that was “ripened, aged”, the two are unlikely to be related.^[5] Köbler and Georges compare a root meaning “to rub, crush”,^[6][3] and Wiktionary also mentions Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to form into a ball”) and Proto-Indo-European *gley- (“to stick, smear”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cato's work on farming,^[5][7][6] meaning gravel.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It was the usual word for the gravel laid on roads: Cicero writes to his brother that dust, not gravel, had been laid at one place (eo loco pulvis, non glarea iniecta est),^[8][3] and Livy reports a contract for laying roads outside the city on a bed of gravel (vias extra urbem glarea substruendas).^[8][3] Varro, Virgil, Tibullus and Columella use it too, and the plural glareae appears in Palladius and the Vulgate.^[8][3] Augustine uses it figuratively, of things pounded into the memory by frequent reading like gravel (quasi glarea memoriae).^[3]

Gregory the Great explains glareae as the small stones that a flowing river carries along.^[4] British Medieval Latin used it for gravel and shingle, for a single pebble and even for a precious stone.^[9] It survives in Italian ghiaia.^[7]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it in his work on farming.^[7][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of gravel on a road.^[8][3][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of gravelly soil.^[8][7][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of the gravel bed of roads.^[8][7][6]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it figuratively.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Gravel.^[2][8]
2. (plural) Pebbles, gravel beds.^[3][4]
3. (Medieval Latin) A pebble; a precious stone.^[9]

Word family

• glāreōsus

Related words

• grānum

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b 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