Etymologically
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miliarium

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Forms

mīliārium n (genitive mīliāriī or mīliārī); second declension[1] The OLD also has the spelling mīlliārium, which Wiktionary takes as the main form.[2][1] An inscription has the masculine miliarius.[2] Medieval British sources also have miliare.[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin mīliārius (“of a thousand”), used as a neuter noun,[2][4] and goes back to mīlle (“thousand”).[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Cato,[4][5] who uses it in On Agriculture for the column in the basin of an olive mill on which the axle turns.[2]

Semantic evolution

From Cicero on it is the milestone that marked each thousand paces along a road, used to give distances (ad tertium miliarium, at the third milestone).[2][6] The miliarium aureum was the gilded milestone set up by Augustus at the head of the Forum.[2][6] Seneca uses it for a cylindrical vessel for heating water, and the land surveyors for the Roman mile itself, a thousand paces.[2]

In medieval British Latin it was simply the mile as a measure of distance, as when Bede speaks of a space of a mile and a half.[3] Conte traces Italian migliaio to it.[6]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato, of the column of an olive mill.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero gives a distance by milestones.[2][5]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca, of a water heater.[2][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder measures distances from the milestone at the head of the Forum.[2][5]
  • 98–117 AD – Balbus defines it as a thousand paces.[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A milestone, marking a Roman mile;[2][7][6] miliarium aureum, the golden milestone in the Forum.[2][7][6]
  2. A Roman mile, a thousand paces.[2][3]
  3. The column supporting the axle in an olive mill.[2]
  4. A cylindrical vessel for heating water.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c 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 f g 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press