magisterium

Forms

magisterium n (genitive magisteriī or magisterī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin magister (“master, chief, teacher”) + -ium.^[2][1][3] De Vaan lists both among the derivatives of magnus (“great”), beside magis (“more”); he compares Oscan mais (“more”) and Umbrian mestru (“bigger”), from Proto-Italic *ma(g)is-tero-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler find it first in Plautus,^[4][5] whose Mostellaria says something was done “by your virtue and your teaching”.^[2][6] The sense there is instruction.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Plautus also uses it of a tutor's charge.^[7][8] Its main classical sense is the office of a superintendent, president or master:^[2] Cicero calls the censorship the strictest magisterium mōrum, “control of morals”, and speaks of the masterships of banquets set up by the ancestors;^[7][2] Livy and Suetonius have the office of master of the horse, magisterium equitum, and the office of a chief priest.^[8][6] Pliny the Elder even uses it of the lead dog in hunting,^[7] and Tibullus and Celsus of instruction in love and in medicine.^[8][6]

Augustine speaks of laying down the burden of his teaching office,^[8] and in Ecclesiastical Latin it is the teaching authority of the Church.^[9][1] Medieval Latin used it for many offices: lordship over a slave, the office of burgomaster, the mastership of a craft guild, the degree of master or licence to teach, and spiritual authority.^[10][11] Italian magistero continues it.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of instruction and of a tutor's charge.^[2][8][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the censorship and of the mastership of banquets.^[2][7][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy has magisterium equitum, the office of master of the horse.^[6][5]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of his teaching office.^[8][5]
• 1128 – A charter in Britain uses it of the dignity of a master of schools.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The office of a superintendent, president or master.^[2][7]
2. Control, governance;^[2][7] magisterium mōrum, the censorship.^[2][7]
3. Instruction, teaching; the charge of a tutor.^[2][8]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The teaching authority of the Church, the magisterium.^[9][1]
5. (Medieval Latin) The office of master of a craft guild; the degree of master, licence to teach.^[10]
6. (Medieval Latin) A technical device or contrivance; the direction of building work.^[10]

Word family

• prōmagisterium

Related words

• magister
• magistra
• magistrālis
• magistrātus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
11. ^ 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