horologium

Forms

hōrologium n (genitive hōrologiī or hōrologī); second declension^[1] Inscriptions also spell it horilegium, horolegium and orlogium.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ὡρολόγιον (hōrológion, “instrument telling the hour”).^[4][5][6] The Greek word is formed from ὥρα (hṓra, “season, hour”) and λέγω (légō, “to say, tell”).^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and Georges record it first in Varro's On Agriculture,^[6][3] and it occurs in Cicero's letters;^[5][7] it is an instrument showing the time, either a sundial or a water clock.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Vitruvius describes the different kinds at length,^[3][5] distinguishing the water clock (horologium ex aqua) from the sundial, which Pliny the Elder calls horologium solarium.^[3] Seneca and Petronius also use it,^[7] and Cassiodorus says that he has provided one worked by the light of the sun.^[3]

In Medieval Latin it meant a clock and also a clock tower;^[8] British sources use it for the sundial, the water clock and the hourglass.^[9] Bede uses it of the sundial.^[9] A British record under 1373 states that clocks dividing the day into twenty-four hours were first made that year.^[9] In New Latin it is a clock or watch.^[1]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero mentions one in a letter.^[5][7][6]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius describes water clocks and sundials.^[3][6]
• AD 218 – An inscription in Germany spells it horolegium.^[2]
• c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus mentions a sundial he provided.^[3][6]
• 1373 – A British record notes the first clocks marking twenty-four hours.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. An instrument for showing the time: a sundial or a water clock.^[4][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) A clock; an hourglass.^[8][9]
3. (Medieval Latin) A clock tower.^[8]
4. (New Latin) A clock, watch.^[1]

Word family

• hōrologiārius

Related words

• hōra
• clepsydra
• sōlārium

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e 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