latericius

Forms

latericius (feminine latericia, neuter latericium); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Manuscripts often spell it lateritius.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin later (“brick”) + -icius.^[4][1][5] De Vaan finds the origin of the noun unclear; if its first meaning was “piece, part”, it may be related to latus² (“side”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro,^[6] who writes in a Menippean satire that the Romans of old lived in brick houses raised on a little stone footing to escape the damp.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Caesar uses it of a brick tower and of brick walls,^[2][3] and, as a neuter noun, of the brickwork that catapult stones might break.^[3][7] Vitruvius contrasts houses with brick walls and houses built of stone,^[2] Columella speaks of opus latericium, brickwork,^[3][7] and Suetonius of a city built of brick.^[3] The word was also used by Pliny the Elder, the Vulgate and Palladius.^[2]

Medieval writers used it in the same sense,^[8] and in Britain from Bede on: Ailred writes that Pharaoh forced the Israelites to build cities with brick walls, and bricklayers are called strātōrēs latericiī.^[9] The TLL traces Old French larriz and words in several French dialects to it,^[2] and Italian laterizio comes from it.^[10]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro writes of the brick houses of the old Romans.^[2][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of brick towers and walls and of brickwork.^[2][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius writes of brick walls.^[2][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius speaks of a city built of brick.^[3][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made of bricks, built of brickwork.^[4][3][7]

Noun

1. latericium: brickwork.^[3][7]

Word family

• latericium

Related words

• later
• laterculus

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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier