Etymologically
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hibernaculum

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [hiː.bɛrˈnaː.kʊ.ɫũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [i.berˈnaː.ku.lum][1]

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]

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