macellum

Forms

macellum n (genitive macellī); second declension^[1] A masculine macellus also occurs.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek μάκελλον (mákellon, “enclosure, market”).^[2][1][4] Köbler takes the Greek word to be probably of Semitic origin.^[4] Wiktionary rejects the idea that it is a diminutive of macula.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[4] who sets the market hall beside the provision market in the Amphitruo.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a provision market, where meat, fish and vegetables were sold, and by extension the provision dealers or the trade;^[2][3] Manilius uses it of the provisions sold there.^[2][3] Döderlein distinguishes it from laniēna, the butcher's stall where the butcher sells jointed meat: the macellum is the market where the macellārius sells all kinds of meat, poultry and fish.^[5] Martial has a masculine macellus.^[3] Church Latin uses it of a market or meat market,^[6] and Medieval Latin of the shambles, a butcher's stall or a butcher's shop.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of the provision market.^[2][4]
• 1st century AD – Manilius of the provisions sold.^[2]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial has the masculine macellus.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A provision market, meat market; the provision dealers, the trade.^[2][3][1][6]
2. Provisions sold in the market.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) The shambles; a butcher's stall or shop.^[7]

Word family

• macellārius

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill