Etymologically
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mitra

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈmɪ.tra], [ˈmɪt.ra][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈmiː.tra], [ˈmit.ra][1]

Forms

mitra f (genitive mitrae); first declension[1] Manuscripts sometimes spell it mithra, rarely metra.[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek μίτρα (mítra, “girdle, headband, turban”).[4][1][5][3] Köbler calls the further origin of the Greek word unclear.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Lucilius.[3]

Semantic evolution

It is an Eastern headdress fastened with ribbons under the chin.[4] Lewis & Short describe it as a headband or turban of the Asiatics, worn in Greece and Rome only by women and sometimes by effeminate young men: Cicero mocks Clodius for his saffron gown and mitra.[5] Juvenal has a prostitute with a painted foreign mitra, and Propertius gives it to Bacchus.[5] Varro lists it among head coverings that came later with Greek names.[2] Servius says the Phrygians and Lydians wore it, a curved cap with flaps over the cheeks.[2] Poets scan the first syllable long, except Afranius, Statius, the poem on Jonah and Prudentius.[2] Jerome notes that the Hebrew word for the priest's headdress is commonly rendered by it.[2] In Late Latin it is also a rope.[5] Niermeyer records medieval senses: a woman's headgear, a nun's veil, the mitre of the Hebrew high priest, and the mitre of bishops and especially of the pope.[6] Church Latin glosses it mitre, bonnet, headdress.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it.[3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of Clodius' headdress.[5][3]
  • c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal of a prostitute's headdress.[5][3]
  • c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome of the Hebrew priest's headdress.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An Eastern headdress tied under the chin; a turban.[4][5][1][7]
  2. (Late Latin) A rope.[5]
  3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The headdress of the Hebrew high priest; a mitre of a bishop or the pope; a nun's headgear.[6][7]

Word family

  • mitella
  • mitrātus
  • mitrula
  • sēmimitra

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson