merenda

Forms

merenda f (genitive merendae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is the gerundive from Latin mereō (“to earn, deserve”), used as a noun.^[2][3] The OLD takes it to have been, at first, a meal given to labourers as part of their wage,^[2] and the TLL compares praebenda.^[3] The verb goes back to Proto-Italic *mer-ē- (“to earn”), which de Vaan traces, with a question mark, to Proto-Indo-European *(s)mr-eh₁- (“to earn”);^[4] he compares Ancient Greek μείρομαι (meíromai, “to receive one's share”) and μέρος (méros, “part, share”).^[4]

Ancient grammarians explained it otherwise: Isidore took it as food eaten after midday, close to dinner, and also derived it from merus (“pure”), because in old times working boys were given plain bread at that hour.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it in the Mostellaria: “vide sis, ne forte ad merendam quopiam devorteris” (“mind you haven't turned off somewhere for an afternoon bite”).^[3][6] The sense is the light meal taken in the afternoon.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short describe it as a luncheon taken between four and five in the afternoon, a word of early and late Latin.^[7] Festus, in Paulus' epitome, says that the ancients used it for the midday meal itself, and Nonius defines it as food given after midday.^[7][3] Ennius, as Festus reports, used it of feed given to an ox, alluding to a custom of Cyprus.^[7][8] Calpurnius speaks of “the hour of the late merenda”,^[7] and Isidore still describes it as food taken as the day declines, also called antecenia.^[3][5]

The word lived on in the Romance languages: Romanian merinde, Italian merenda, Old French marende and Spanish merienda.^[3] British Medieval Latin used it for an afternoon meal, glossed “nonmete” in Ælfric's glossary, and in 16th-century accounts for meals paid for on the eve of Saint Nicholas.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Mostellaria.^[3][10]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of feed for an ox, as Festus reports.^[7][10]
• second half of the 2nd century BC – Afranius uses it in a comedy quoted by Nonius.^[7][10]
• 1st century AD – Calpurnius mentions the hour of the late merenda.^[7][10]
• 100–170 AD – A letter of Marcus Aurelius in Fronto's correspondence has the word.^[8][10]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains it as food eaten as the day declines.^[5][10]
• 1526 – British accounts record payments for merendae on the eve of Saint Nicholas.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A light afternoon meal, a luncheon taken between the midday meal and dinner, apparently given at first to labourers as part of their pay.^[2][7]
2. Feed given to cattle.^[7][8]
3. (Medieval Latin) An afternoon meal, “noonmeat”.^[9]

Word family

• merendo

Usage notes

Merenda was also a Roman cognomen, borne by the consul Titus Antonius Merenda.^[7][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
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 Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
6. ^ 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 h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de