Etymologically
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integumentum

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪn.tɛ.ɡʊˈmɛn.tũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [in.te.ɡuˈmɛn.tum][1]

Forms

integumentum n (genitive integumentī); second declension[1] The older spelling integimentum survives as a manuscript reading, for example in Plautus.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin integō (“to cover over”) + -mentum.[3][2][1] The verb is a compound of in- and tegō (“to cover”),[4] which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg-e/o- (“to cover”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,[6][2] meaning a protection or shield: in the Bacchides a parasite calls himself the protection of that man's body (illius sum integumentum corporis).[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It means a protective covering or guard,[3] and then any cover or wrapping: Livy explains that the “linen legion” was named from the linen covering of the enclosure in which the consecrated nobles stood.[3][2] Figuratively it is a means of concealment, as when Cicero says he saw someone's gifts through certain wrappings and coverings, or speaks of the coverings of misdeeds.[3][2] Festus calls the eyebrow the covering of the eye, and Augustine uses it of the husks of grain.[2]

British Medieval Latin keeps the senses of an outer covering or husk and of a means of concealment, and adds that of an obscure expression or allegory: Bernard's commentary on the Aeneid defines integumentum as a kind of exposition that wraps the truth in a fictitious narrative.[7] English borrowed it as integument in the 1610s, with the biological sense of a skin or shell from the 1660s.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for a protection.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it figuratively for a covering that conceals.[3][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of the covering of a sacred enclosure.[3][6]
  • first third of the 8th century – Bede uses it for the husks of grain.[7][6]
  • 1610s – English borrows it as integument.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A protective covering, shield, guard.[3][8]
  2. A cover, wrapping; a means of concealment.[3][2]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A husk; an obscure expression, an allegory.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c 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
  8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press