miliarius

Forms

mīliārius (feminine mīliāria, neuter mīliārium); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2] Also spelled milliārius.^[1][2] Manuscripts nearly everywhere write it with one ⟨l⟩, while older editions print two.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin mīlle (“thousand”) + -ārius.^[1][4][5] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of mīlle, first found in Varro.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Varro (116–27 BC),^[6][7] of numbers that belong to the thousands and of flocks of a thousand head.^[1]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it described anything made up of a thousand units: a cavalry squadron of a thousand men, a slope a thousand paces long, boars weighing a thousand pounds, olive trees said to yield a thousand pounds of oil a year,^[1][2][5] and, in an inscription, charioteers with a thousand victories.^[1] Tertullian used it of an age of a thousand years.^[2][4]

In Augustine the plural mīliāriī named the Chiliasts, who expected a thousand-year reign of Christ on earth.^[8] In early medieval charters miliarius became a masculine noun meaning a mile.^[9][10]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of numbers in the thousands, of flocks of a thousand and of a slope a thousand paces long.^[1][7]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius speaks of stretches of sailing a thousand paces long.^[1][7]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca mentions boars weighing a thousand pounds.^[1][2][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder reports olive trees called miliariae from the weight of oil they yield in a year.^[1][7]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian speaks of an age of a thousand years.^[2][4][7]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine calls the Chiliasts mīliāriī.^[8][7]
• 918 – A cartulary of Angoulême uses miliarius as a noun for a mile.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of numbers) Belonging to the thousands.^[1]
2. Made up of a thousand: a flock of a thousand, a squadron or cohort of a thousand men.^[1][2][5]
3. A thousand paces long.^[1][5]
4. Weighing a thousand pounds.^[1][2]
5. (of a charioteer) Having won a thousand victories.^[1]
6. (Late Latin) Lasting a thousand years.^[2][4]

Noun

1. (Late Latin, masculine plural) The Chiliasts, a Christian sect expecting Christ's thousand-year reign on earth.^[8]
2. (Medieval Latin, masculine) A mile.^[9][10]

Word family

• mīliārium
• miliarensis

Usage notes

The neuter used as a noun, mīliārium, is a milestone.^[6][4] A separate adjective miliārius “of millet”, from milium, is found in Varro and Pliny the Elder: Varro's miliāriae are birds fattened on millet, and Pliny's herba miliāria a weed harmful to millet.^[4][2][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c VoLat: Vocabolario della Lingua Latina (2018), Milan: Hoepli
9. ^ a b c Novum Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis ab anno DCCC usque ad annum MCC (1957–), Copenhagen / Geneva / Paris: Union Académique Internationale; IRHT
10. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre