maceria

Forms

māceria f (genitive māceriae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is probably from Latin mācerō (“to soak, soften”);^[2][1][3] de Vaan takes the words to presuppose an adjective meaning “soaked” or “kneaded”, so that the wall was named for its kneaded material, clay.^[3] Lewis and Short likewise explain it as originally a wall of soft clay.^[4] The meaning would fit Proto-Indo-European *mh2ǵ- (“to knead”), but the Latin /k/ does not correspond to it.^[3] Köbler compares a root meaning “to knead, squeeze”.^[5]

De Vaan lists Ancient Greek μάσσω (mássō, “to knead”) and Old High German mahhōn (“to make”) among the cognates of mācerō.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler find it first in Plautus,^[3][5] whose Truculentus asks what is the matter with the wall in the garden that grows a brick shorter every night.^[2][4] It means a wall of brick or stone, especially one round a garden.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Terence and Cato use it for garden and farm walls, Cato with instructions for building one.^[2][4] Caesar has a ditch and a wall six feet high, and Livy a wall by the side of a path.^[4][6] A by-form māceriēs appears in Varro and Prudentius.^[7][4]

Medieval writers in Britain use it for walls of buildings, of enclosures and of towns, and figuratively.^[8] Du Cange records a medieval maceria meaning building timber, but explains it as an error for māteria.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a garden wall.^[2][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato gives instructions for building one.^[2][4][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar describes a wall six feet high.^[4][6][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses the by-form māceriēs.^[7][5]
• 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius also has māceriēs.^[7][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wall of brick or stone, especially one enclosing a garden.^[2][4]
2. (Medieval Latin) A wall of a building, an enclosure or a town.^[8]

Word family

• māceriātus
• māceriola

Usage notes

Conte warns that the word does not mean what Italian maceria does: the Italian word keeps the Latin sense only in special uses.^[6] Döderlein sets it, the wall of an enclosure marking a boundary and keeping out thieves, such as a garden or vineyard wall, against mūrus, any wall by its form, pariēs, the wall of a building, and moenia, the walls of a city.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b 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
9. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
10. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper