Etymologically
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horologium

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [hoː.rɔˈɫɔ.ɡi.ũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [o.roˈlɔː.d͡ʒi.um][1]

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

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