Etymologically
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idolum

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [iːˈdoː.ɫũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [iˈdɔː.lum][1]

Forms

īdōlum n (genitive īdōlī); second declension[1] Also ⟨īdōlon⟩, the Greek form, and ⟨eidōlon⟩.[2][3][4] Medieval spellings include ⟨ydolum⟩, ⟨hidolum⟩ and ⟨idulum⟩.[5][6] Except in Lucilius, Latin verse scans it with a short second syllable, ⟨īdŏlum⟩, as Prudentius does.[7][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek εἴδωλον (eídōlon, “image, phantom; idol”),[2][1][8][5] from εἶδος (eîdos, “form, shape”).[1][9] Etymonline notes that Jewish and early Christian writers already used the Greek word for the image of a false god.[9]

Tertullian explained that ⟨eîdos⟩ means form in Greek and that the word was formed from it as a diminutive.[7] Isidore of Seville, who repeats him, rejects as ignorant the derivation from dolus (“deceit”), based on the devil's having turned the worship due to God towards created things.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lucilius has it, as ⟨eidōla⟩, of the “images” of Epicurean philosophy: eidōla atque atomōs vincere Epicūrī volam, “I would like to defeat the images and atoms of Epicurus”.[2][7][4] Cicero, speaking of the same images of Democritus, writes the word in Greek letters.[3][7]

Semantic evolution

Pliny the Younger uses ⟨īdōlon⟩ of a ghost: mox appārēbat īdōlon, senex maciē et squālōre cōnfectus, “soon a phantom appeared, an old man worn with leanness and filth”.[2][3] Prudentius has dark souls and īdōla flying about,[7] and Marius Victorinus uses it for the Neoplatonic image or species.[7] The TLL notes that it is found from Lucilius on but seems to have been taken into use as a Latin word only from Tertullian, and that outside Apuleius only Church writers have it.[7]

With them it means an image of a god worshipped by pagans or Jews, an idol:[7][3][10] Tertullian writes a whole treatise on idolatry, Lactantius speaks of falling away from the worship of idols, and Augustine of the worshipper of idols.[3][4] Fulgentius uses it of images of the dead honoured out of grief.[7] Medieval Latin kept it for an idol, the image of a false god:[11][6] a papal letter of 601 in Bede says that the temples of idols should not be destroyed, only the idols in them.[12] It was also an image, statue or effigy,[6][12] and in medieval philosophy the image in a mirror, a dream or the mind,[6] and the image formed in seeing, which Roger Bacon says is not seen but is the means of seeing.[12] English idol came from it through Old French in the mid-13th century.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it of the images of Epicurean philosophy.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero writes the word in Greek letters.[3][5]
  • c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian writes of idols and idolatry.[7][5]
  • c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius speaks of the worship of idols.[3][5]
  • 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius uses it of the shades of the dead.[7][5]
  • 354–430 AD – Augustine speaks of the worshipper of idols.[3][5]
  • 601 – A papal letter in Bede orders the idols in pagan temples destroyed.[12]
  • mid-13th century – English idol is recorded.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An apparition, phantom, ghost.[2][3][4]
  2. (philosophy) In Epicurean thought, an image given off by things; a mental image.[2][7][4]
  3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) An idol, the image of a false god.[3][10][11]
  4. (Medieval Latin) An image, statue, effigy.[6][12]
  5. (Medieval Latin, philosophy) The image formed in seeing; a mirror image or dream image.[6][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f 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 j k l m Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  8. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  9. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  11. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  12. ^ a b c d e f 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