martyrium

Forms

martyrium n (genitive martyriī or martyrī); second declension^[1] Christian inscriptions also spell it martirium.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek μαρτύριον (martúrion, “testimony, proof”).^[1][2][3] The Greek word belongs with μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”),^[3] the source of Latin martyr.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from the Old Latin Bible translations and Tertullian (c. 160–220 AD) on,^[2][3] first in the sense “testimony”, rendering the Greek word in passages such as the Book of Revelation's souls slain for the word of God and their testimony.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Augustine remarks that the Greeks call testimonies martyria, a word that Latin was by then using in place of its own.^[2] The usual Christian sense became a testimony to the faith sealed with one's blood, martyrdom.^[4][5][1] In medieval Latin it also meant the commemoration of a martyr, a martyr's relic, and a church or burial place dedicated to a martyr.^[6][1] British writers used it as well for ascetic life and physical suffering seen as martyrdom.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it, as in martyrii palmae, the palm of martyrdom.^[4][2][3]
• 348/349–c. 413 AD – Prudentius writes of the blood of martyrdom.^[4][3]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine notes that Latin has taken over the Greek word for testimony.^[2][3]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm writes in verse of a woman who earned the banners of martyrdom.^[7][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Testimony, witness.^[2][7]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Martyrdom.^[4][5][6]
3. (Medieval Latin) The commemoration of a martyr.^[6]
4. (Medieval Latin) A martyr's relic.^[6]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A church dedicated to a martyr; a martyr's burial place, a martyrium.^[6][1]

Related words

• martyr

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c d e Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b c 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