gubernaculum

Forms

gubernāculum n (genitive gubernāculī); second declension^[1] The poets always use the contracted gubernāclum.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin gubernō (“to steer”) + -culum.^[3][2][1] The verb is borrowed from Ancient Greek κυβερνάω (kubernáō, “to steer”).^[3][5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[6] who has the contracted form in his translation of Aratus.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the steering oar of a ship, the helm or rudder;^[3][4] Lucretius and Virgil use it.^[3][4] Figuratively it is above all the helm of the ship of state, and also of an army: Velleius writes that the army was too large to be controlled and ill suited to the helm.^[3] Church Latin glosses it helm, rudder, and government or management.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero in his translation of Aratus.^[2][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius has the contracted form.^[2][4][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a ship's helm.^[4][6]
• c. 20 BC–30 AD – Velleius of the helm of an army.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The steering oar of a ship, helm, rudder.^[3][4][7][1]
2. (figurative) The helm of the state; government, management.^[3][7][1]

Related words

• gubernō
• gubernātor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson