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macellarius

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word macellarius

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
116–27 BC Varro More words from the 2nd century BC
Ultimate origin
Latin macellum
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin macellum
Latin macellārius
Romanian măcelar

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ma.kɛlˈlaː.ri.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ma.t͡ʃelˈlaː.ri.us][1]

Forms

macellārius (feminine macellāria, neuter macellārium); first/second-declension adjective; as a noun macellārius m (genitive macellāriī or macellārī); second declension[2][1]

Etymology

The adjective is from Latin macellum (“provision market”) + -ārius; the noun is the adjective used as a noun.[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun is the earlier: Varro, writing on farming, asks whether a farmer sells his boars to the macellarius, the dealer in provisions.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The macellārius sold food in the market, above all meat, and the word came to mean a butcher.[3][2] Suetonius has such dealers supplying Caesar's banquets and Vespasian dining generously to help them;[3] Vegetius recommends butchers, with hunters of deer and boar, as recruits.[3] The adjective “of the provision trade” appears in Valerius Maximus' story of a man who rose to the consulship from his father's butcher's shop (macellaria taberna), and in inscriptions naming a negotiator artis macellariae.[3][4]

Medieval Latin kept the noun for “butcher”.[5] It lives on in Italian macellaio and Old French maiselier.[3]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses the noun for a dealer who buys boars.[3][6]
  • c. 31 AD – Valerius Maximus has the adjective, of a butcher's shop.[3]
  • c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius mentions provision dealers at Caesar's feasts.[3][6]
  • c. 400 AD – Vegetius counts butchers among suitable recruits.[3][6]
  • c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus names butchers beside wine-sellers.[3][6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of or concerned with provisions or the meat trade.[2][4]

Noun

  1. A dealer in provisions, a victualler.[2][4]
  2. A butcher, a seller of meat.[3][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Macellarius.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/la/macellarius. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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