lapicidinae

Forms

lapicīdīnae f pl (genitive lapicīdīnārum); first declension^[1] It also appears as lapicaedīnae in inscriptions and as lapidicīnae in Varro, Vitruvius and others.^[2][3] The grammarian Consentius calls both lapidicīnae and lapicīdīnae correct.^[2] The singular is found only in glosses.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin lapis (“stone”) + caedō (“to cut”) + -īna,^[4][2][3] or lapicīda (“stonecutter”) with the suffix of workplaces.^[1] De Vaan thinks lapis is probably a Mediterranean loanword, and compares Ancient Greek λέπας (lépas, “bare rock”).^[5] He traces caedō to Proto-Italic *kaid-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *keh₂id- (“to cut, hew”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short and Georges give Plautus' Captivi first, where a man is to be taken off to the quarries as a punishment: in lapicīdīnās facite dēductus siet.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

In Plautus the quarries are a place of punishment.^[3] Cato already has the word,^[5] and Cicero writes of the quarries of Chios,^[6][3] Pliny the Elder of marble quarries,^[3] and Vitruvius of pits from which hard bitumen was dug.^[3] Festus explains it as the place where stones are cut out.^[6][2]

Inscriptions of the 2nd century AD use the spelling lapicaedīnae,^[2] and the Vulgate has the word in the second book of Chronicles.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of quarries as a place of punishment.^[6][7]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses the word.^[5][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero mentions the quarries of Chios.^[6][7]
• AD 172 – An inscription has the spelling lapicaedīnae.^[2]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it in Chronicles.^[6][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (plural) Stone quarries, often as a place of punishment.^[4][3]
2. Pits for digging minerals such as hard bitumen.^[3]

Related words

• lapicīda
• lapidicīnae

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 j Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d 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 f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de