hibernaculum

Forms

hībernāculum n (genitive hībernāculī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin hībernō (“to spend the winter”) + -culum.^[2][1][3][4] hībernō comes from hībernus (“of winter”), which de Vaan derives from hiems (“winter”).^[5]

Varro already derived it from the word for winter.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Lucilius on, in the military sense of winter tents or huts;^[3] it then appears in the Lex Antonia de Termessibus of 71 BC, which orders soldiers to be led into hibernācula.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word is usually plural.^[2] In the army hibernācula were the tents or buildings of a winter camp, and so the winter quarters themselves.^[3][6][7] Sallust and Nepos use it of troops quartered for the winter;^[3] Livy reports that, during the siege of Veii, the building of hibernācula was something new for a Roman soldier, and that those of the Carthaginians were almost all of wood.^[3][6] Tacitus and an address of the emperor Hadrian of AD 128 still use it of winter quarters.^[3]

In domestic architecture it meant the winter rooms of a house, those used only in winter: so Vitruvius and Columella, and Pliny the Younger in the singular.^[3][6] In medieval Latin Osbern of Gloucester glosses it as a house against the winter.^[8]

English hibernacle (1708) comes from the plural, and the Latin word itself was used in English biology from the 1690s.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it of winter tents.^[3][10]
• 71 BC – The Lex Antonia de Termessibus speaks of soldiers led into winter quarters.^[3]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it of an army's winter quarters.^[3][10]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of the winter rooms of a house.^[3][10]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy reports the building of winter huts at the siege of Veii.^[3][10]
• 128 AD – An address of Hadrian uses it of winter quarters.^[3]
• 1708 – English borrows the plural as hibernacle.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (usually plural, military) winter quarters, the tents or huts of a winter camp.^[2][3][6]
2. Winter rooms or a winter residence.^[3][6][11]

Related words

• hībernālis
• hībernō
• hībernum
• hībernus
• English hibernacle

Usage notes

In a passage of Caesar's Gallic War some manuscripts read hibernācula where editors print hiberna.^[3] Lewis and Short distinguish hibernācula, the winter tents, from hiberna, winter quarters in general.^[6]

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 f g h i j k l m n o p q r Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
11. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier