Etymologically
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helciarius

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [hɛɫ.kiˈaː.ri.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [el̠ʲ.t͡ʃiˈaː.ri.us][1]

Forms

helciārius m (genitive helciāriī or helciārī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin helcium (“towrope, harness”) + -ārius,[2][1] or, as the TLL and Köbler put it, from helcia.[3][4] The base goes back to Ancient Greek ἕλκω (hélkō, “to draw, drag”).[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Martial,[4] who complains that neither the boatmen's call nor the shouting of the helciarii can break a sleeper's rest: somnum nec rumpere nauticum celeuma nec clamor valet helciariorum.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The TLL defines it as a man who tows a ship upstream with ropes.[3] It is rare: after Martial it appears in a poem in a letter of Sidonius Apollinaris, who writes of the curvorum chorus helciariorum, “the chorus of bent haulers”.[3][6] Conte compares it, with Italian alzare, in explaining Italian alzaia.[7]

Timeline

  • 40–102/103 AD – Martial mentions the shouting of the haulers.[3][2][4]
  • c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius Apollinaris writes of the chorus of bent haulers.[3][6][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A man who tows boats upstream with a rope, a boat-hauler.[2][3][6]
  • helcia

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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier