Etymologically
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hippodromos

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [hɪpˈpɔ.drɔ.mɔs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ipˈpɔː.dro.mos][1]

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]

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