Etymologically
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mortarium

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [mɔrˈtaː.ri.ũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [morˈtaː.ri.um][1]

Forms

mortārium n (genitive mortāriī or mortārī); second declension[1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.[1] The OLD thinks it perhaps related to Sanskrit मृणाति (mr̥ṇāti, “crushes”) and Ancient Greek μαραίνω (maraínō, “to quench, destroy”).[2] De Vaan suggests a noun Proto-Italic *morto- (“ground”) from Proto-Indo-European *mr̥-to- (“crushed”), from the root of morior “to die”, with the extension seen in words meaning to destroy or crush.[3] Köbler cites Pokorny's Proto-Indo-European *mr̥tós (“ground, crushed”).[4] Isidore of Seville explained it as the vessel where seeds, ground to powder and so dead, are stored.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,[3][4] and Cato uses it too.[6]

Semantic evolution

It is a bowl or trough in which things are pounded, a mortar, mostly before the classical period and after Augustus;[2][6] Nonius defines it as the vessel in which things to be dissolved are ground.[2][6] Pliny the Elder has mortars of bronze and of lead.[6] Transferred, it is the large basin in which builders' mortar is mixed, as in Vitruvius, and then the mortar itself.[6][1] In Medieval Latin it is also a mortar, and a small lamp or cresset.[7] English mortar for building, from the mid-13th century, comes from Old French mortier and directly from this word, which Etymonline thinks the same as the word for the bowl.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses the word.[6][3][4]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses the word.[6][4]
  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of a trough for builders' mortar.[6][4]
  • mid-13th century – English mortar for building.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A bowl or trough in which things are pounded, a mortar.[2][6][1][7]
  2. A basin in which builders' mortar is mixed; mortar of lime, sand and water.[6][1]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A small lamp, cresset.[7]

Word family

  • mortariolum
  • English mortar

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  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 c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com