hippodromos

Forms

hippodromos m (genitive hippodromī); second declension^[1] Also hippodromus.^[2][3][4] Martial has the Greek accusative hippodromon.^[5] Medieval manuscripts also write ypodromus, ipodromus and hyppodromus.^[6][7]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἱππόδρομος (hippódromos, “race-course for horses and chariots”),^[2][8][9] a compound of ἵππος (híppos, “horse”) and δρόμος (drómos, “running, course”).^[1][7] Köbler traces the first part to Proto-Indo-European *ek̑u̯os (“horse”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[7][5] in the Bacchides, of someone coming home from the hippodromus and the palaestra.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It names a course for horse and chariot races;^[2][8] among the Greeks such courses were public and often joined to the gymnasia.^[3] Among the Romans it was also a track or walk in private gardens and villas, laid out in the shape of a race-course: Pliny the Younger describes one in his villa, and Martial and Sidonius Apollinaris mention others.^[2][5][3]

In Late Latin, Hegesippus and Rufinus tell how Herod had the nobles shut up in the hippodrome.^[5] The Old Latin Bible, following the Septuagint, has it in Genesis in the account of Rachel's burial;^[5] Jerome says he does not know what the Greek translators meant by it.^[5]

Medieval writers use it of the imperial hippodrome^[6][10] and, in Britain, of a horse-trainer, of a trave in a smithy and of the rack, an instrument of torture shaped like a horse.^[10] English took over the word in the 1580s, through French.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Bacchides.^[5][7]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it of a private race-track.^[5][7]
• c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius Apollinaris mentions it in a letter.^[3][7]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm speaks of the vestibule of the imperial hippodrome.^[6][7]
• 1580s – English borrows it, through French, as hippodrome.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A course for horse and chariot races, a hippodrome.^[2][8][4]
2. A track or walk in private grounds laid out like a race-course.^[2][5]
3. (Medieval Latin) A horse-trainer.^[10][7]
4. (Medieval Latin) The rack, an instrument of torture shaped like a horse.^[10]

Related words

• circus
• stadium

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
10. ^ a b c d 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
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com