Etymologically
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metallum

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [mɛˈtal.lũː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [meˈtal.lum][1]

Forms

metallum n (genitive metallī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek μέταλλον (métallon, “mine, metal”).[2][1][3] Köbler calls the further origin uncertain, perhaps Arabic.[4] Pliny the Elder and Isidore explain it from Greek ⟨μετ' ἄλλα⟩ “after other things”, since where one vein appears another is sought.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citation is from Lucretius, of a mine.[2] Köbler dates Lucretius 96–55 BC.[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant a place where metals are found, a mine or quarry, as Livy's īnstituere metalla “to open mines”, and in Tacitus a mine as a place of punishment, Pliny the Younger's damnāre in metallum “to condemn to the mines”.[2][7] From Virgil it meant a metal or mineral.[2] Isidore lists seven kinds of metals.[6]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant a metal or mine.[8] It survives in Italian metallo and French and Spanish metal, and Old French metal gave English metal in the mid-13th century.[1][3]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of a mine.[2][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a metal.[2][4]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of the mines as punishment.[2][4]
  • mid-13th century – English metal is recorded.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A mine, quarry; the mines as a punishment.[2]
  2. A metal, mineral.[2]

Word family

  • metallārius
  • metallicus
  • metallifer

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  7. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson