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libraria

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libraria1 bookshop; female copyist

Forms

librāria f (genitive librāriae); first declension.[1]

Etymology

The bookshop and the copyist are a feminine noun from Latin librārius (“of books; copyist, bookseller”),[1][2] which is formed from liber2 (“bark; book”).[3][4] De Vaan tentatively traces ⟨liber⟩ to Proto-Italic *lufro- and Proto-Indo-European *lubh-ro- (“leaf, rind”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first citation is Juvenal's sixth satire, where it probably means a female secretary or copyist: si nocte maritus aversus iacuit, periit libraria (“if the husband lay turned away at night, the libraria is done for”).[1] Lewis & Short give this reading only as a possibility.[2]

Semantic evolution

Gellius uses it for a bookshop, where he and the poet Julius Paulus sat,[1][2] and Martianus Capella calls the Fates the female scribes of the gods and keepers of their archive.[2][3]

In Medieval Latin it became the usual word for a library, both the collection of books and the room or building that held it;[6][7][8] an English record of 1325 tells of books taken from a convent's libraria.[6] In the Czech lands it also named a nun who looked after the books.[8] Notker glosses it with Old High German words for a scribe.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it, probably of a female copyist.[1][4]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it for a bookshop.[1][4]
  • c. 1000 – Notker glosses it as a scribe.[4]
  • 1295 – A chronicle speaks of the space in front of a monastery's libraria.[9]
  • 1325 – An English record speaks of books taken from a convent's library.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A female secretary or copyist.[1][2][3]
  2. A bookshop.[1][2][3]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A library: a collection of books, or the room or building holding it.[6][7][9]
  4. (Medieval Latin) A nun in charge of a convent's books.[8]

libraria2 woman who weighs out wool

Forms

lībrāria f (genitive lībrāriae); first declension.[2][3]

Etymology

The woman who weighs out wool is a feminine noun from Latin lībrārius (“of a pound's weight”),[2] from lībra (“pound; pair of scales”),[3][4] which goes back to Proto-Italic *leiþra- (“pound”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short, Gaffiot and Lewis read the libraria of Juvenal's sixth satire as the woman who weighed out the day's wool to the slave women,[2][3][10] the forewoman of the spinners.[2]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short add an inscription for this sense and give lanipendia as another name for the same woman.[2] The OLD and Conte take Juvenal's word for a female copyist instead (Conte mentions the weigher as another view),[1][11] so that this sense rests on one disputed passage and an inscription.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses libraria, read by some as the woman who weighs out wool.[2][3][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A woman who weighed out the wool to be spun by the slave women; a forewoman.[2][3][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d 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 Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
  8. ^ a b c Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum / Slovník středověké latiny v českých zemích (1977–), Prague: Academia; electronic version, Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences
  9. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
  10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T. (1890), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: American Book Company
  11. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  12. ^ Simpson, D. P. (1959), Cassell's New Latin Dictionary, London: Cassell