matta

Forms

matta f (genitive mattae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Phoenician mṭṭ (“mat”), a Semitic word that came into Latin through Punic or Phoenician.^[1][2][3] Köbler compares Biblical Hebrew מִטָּה (miṭṭāh, “bed”) and נָטָה (nāṭāh, “to spread out, stretch out”),^[3] and Walde, following Keller, explains the variant natta from the initial sound of that verb.^[4]

This variant, found in Gregory of Tours, lives on in French natte.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first author cited for it is Augustine, in his work against Faustus, for a mat of rushes.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

The scholiast on Juvenal explains teges, the poor man's mat, as matta, and he calls it the furniture of a shameful bed.^[2][9] In glossaries it is equated with a little cloth and with a mat of coarse papyrus.^[2]

In medieval monasteries the matta was the mat on which monks slept instead of a mattress;^[10] Smaragdus says of the bedding that “we call it matta or natta”.^[10] British sources use it for mats on floors, chairs and beds, and for mats among a ship's stores.^[11] In Hungary it also named the rush or sedge itself and a reed bed.^[12] From Late Latin it passed into Old English as matte, the source of English mat.^[13]

Timeline

• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it for a rush mat.^[6][8][3]
• 9th century – Smaragdus equates matta with natta in a commentary on the Rule of Benedict.^[10][3]
• c. 1169 – A letter of Peter of Blois lists mats among the provisions of a Genoese ship.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mat made of rushes, used as a coarse covering or bed.^[6][7][8]
2. (Medieval Latin) A mat for a floor, chair or bed; a monk's sleeping mat.^[11][10][14]
3. (Medieval Latin) A rush or sedge; a reed bed.^[12]

Word family

• mattarius

Related words

• English mat

Usage notes

In Ovid's Fasti (6.680) matta is a variant reading, but editors now print scirpea lata there.^[7][6] Du Cange has other medieval words spelled matta: a measure of grain paid to millers, a heap of hemp put in water to ret, and a tombstone.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b Walde, Alois (1906), Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
9. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
10. ^ a b c d Novum Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis ab anno DCCC usque ad annum MCC (1957–), Copenhagen / Geneva / Paris: Union Académique Internationale; IRHT
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
13. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill