machinamentum

Forms

māchināmentum n (genitive māchināmentī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin māchinor (“to devise, contrive”) + -mentum,^[2][1] and that verb is made from māchina (“machine, contrivance”).^[3][1] Wiktionary takes māchina as a very early borrowing from Ancient Greek μαχανά (makhaná, “machine, tool”), the Doric form of μηχανή (mēkhanḗ), early enough for the unstressed /a/ to be reduced to /i/.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD and Köbler find it first in the historian Sisenna,^[2][3] who lists catapults, missiles and many kinds of siege engines.^[2] The sense is an engine of war.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Livy and Tacitus use it of siege engines,^[4][5] Celsus of surgical devices for stretching a thigh, and Seneca of instruments of torture.^[4][5] Apuleius applies it to the organs of the senses.^[4][6] From the Theodosian Code and Augustine on it is a trick or contrivance,^[6][5] a sense that continues in medieval Latin beside “building”.^[7] In Britain it is an ingenious device, a war engine, and in māchināmentum mundī the universe.^[8]

Timeline

• 120–67 BC – Sisenna uses it of siege engines.^[2][3]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of engines for battering walls.^[4][3]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of instruments of torture.^[4][3]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of the organs of sense.^[4][6][3]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of a contrivance or trick.^[6][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An engine of war, siege engine.^[2][4]
2. An apparatus, device, instrument; a surgical instrument or one of torture.^[2][4][5]
3. (figurative) An organ of sense.^[4][6]
4. (Late Latin) A trick, contrivance, machination.^[6][9][7]
5. (Medieval Latin) A building.^[7]

Related words

• māchina
• māchinor
• māchinātiō

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ 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. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson