horarium

Forms

hōrārium n (genitive hōrāriī or hōrārī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin hōra (“hour”) + -ārium, made like sōlārium¹ “sundial”.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Censorinus uses it in his account of the first water clock at Rome: Publius Cornelius Nasica made a horarium from water, which was also called a sōlārium because people were used to telling the hours by the sun.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short label it late Latin,^[4] and the TLL gives it the sense of horologium, a clock.^[2] Köbler records it again in Gottschalk the Saxon in the 9th century.^[5]

Timeline

• Late Latin – Censorinus uses it of Scipio Nasica's water clock.^[2][4]
• 2nd third of the 9th century – Gottschalk the Saxon uses it.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A clock or dial.^[4][3][2][1]

Usage notes

Du Cange records a medieval horarium meaning a bishop's linen garment and refers it to ōrāle and ōrārium, which are other words.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre