lumbaris

Forms

lumbāris (neuter lumbāre); third-declension adjective, also used as a neuter noun lumbāre.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin lumbus (“loin”) + -āris.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it chiefly in Jerome (c. 383–419/420 AD),^[2][1] as a noun for a garment worn round the loins; in the Vulgate, Jeremiah carries his lumbare beyond the Euphrates.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Isidore of Seville explains that it is called so because it is tied to the loins, and that men as well as women wear it in Egypt and Syria; others, he says, call it renale.^[2][3] Glossaries render it with subligar and with an Old English word for breeches.^[2]

In British Medieval Latin the adjective meant “of the loins”, and the noun a loincloth, breech-girdle or belt, from which a dagger could hang.^[4] Köbler dates the medieval adjective before 1275.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it of a garment worn round the loins.^[2][1]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains the name.^[2][1]
• before 1275 – The adjective appears in British Medieval Latin.^[1]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Medieval Latin) Of the loins, lumbar.^[4][1]

Noun

1. A loincloth, a garment worn round the loins.^[2][1]
2. (Medieval Latin) A breech-girdle, belt.^[4]

Related words

• lumbus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
4. ^ 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