libramentum

Forms

lībrāmentum n (genitive lībrāmentī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lībrō (“to balance, poise”) + -mentum.^[2][1][3] The verb is made from lībra (“pound; pair of scales”).^[1] De Vaan reconstructs that noun as Proto-Italic *leiþra- and finds no root for it; the Sicilian coin name Ancient Greek λίτρα (lítra) was probably borrowed from Italic.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Cicero on, who apologizes for using it:^[3] he writes that mathematicians grant a point without magnitude and, as it were, a plane with no thickness at all, quasi lībrāmentum.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first concrete sense was a weight that worked a mechanism, a counterpoise: Livy describes an iron grapple pulled down by a heavy lead weight that lifted a ship's prow, Tacitus the ropes and weights of siege engines, and Pliny the Younger a hidden weight that makes a spring rise and fall.^[2][5]

Vitruvius uses it for a level or elevation, ad lībrāmentum “on a level with”, for a level surface, and for the gradient of a water channel, which Pliny the Elder says must be steep.^[2][3] Seneca uses it of balance and equipoise, Columella of the evenness of winds, and Ammianus of a boundary line.^[2][5] British medieval writers use it for the counterweight of a balance and for a state of balance.^[6] Modern Latin has used it for a weight in strength training.^[1]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for a geometrical plane.^[2][7]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it for a level and for the gradient of a channel.^[2][7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it for the weight of a grappling device.^[2][7]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it for balance.^[2][7]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus uses it for a boundary line.^[5][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A weight that works a mechanism, a counterpoise, counterweight.^[2][5]
2. A level, elevation;^[2] ad lībrāmentum, on a level (with).^[2]
3. A level surface, horizontal plane.^[2][5]
4. (geometry) A plane.^[2]
5. The gradient of a watercourse.^[2]
6. Equipoise, balance; evenness.^[2][5]
7. (Late Latin) A boundary line.^[5]
8. (New Latin) A weight used in strength training.^[1]

Related words

• lībra
• lībella
• lībrātiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de