mortuarium

Forms

mortuārium n (genitive mortuāriī or mortuārī); second declension^[1] Medieval spellings include mortarium and mortorium.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin mortuus (“dead; a corpse”) + -ārium (“place for”),^[1][4] the neuter, used as a noun, of the adjective mortuārius (“of the dead”).^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in a phrase of Cato the Elder that Aulus Gellius preserves: the grammarian Domitius tells philosophers that they are, as Cato says, mere mortuaria, since they collect glossaries and empty words.^[4][7] The TLL takes it there as a store of dead, outworn things,^[4] Conte as a receptacle of corpses,^[8] and Lewis and Short read the adjective in mortuaria glossaria, “vocabularies of the dead”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In medieval Latin it became a term of church dues and inheritance: the mortuary, a gift owed to the parish church or its priest when a parishioner died which could be paid in livestock,^[6][9][10] and, in Niermeyer and Czech sources, mainmorte, the property of one who died without will or heirs.^[3][11] Polish documents use it for an inheritance and for a fee paid for a burial.^[12]

It also named a funeral,^[9] a necrology,^[9] and in England a book containing the Office of the Dead.^[6] English took the church sense in the late 14th century as mortuary, through Anglo-French.^[5]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato, in a phrase preserved by Gellius, calls philosophers mortuaria.^[4][2]
• c. 165 AD – Aulus Gellius quotes the phrase.^[4][2]
• 1098 – A charter has the medieval word.^[2]
• c. 1220 – A charter lists mortoria among the dues paid to a church.^[6]
• 1255 – A charter grants a vicar the mortuarium of the parish.^[6]
• 1308 – A French charter uses it for a funeral.^[9]
• 1352 – An account roll lists three mortuaria among a church's service books.^[6]
• 1377 – A Polish document uses it for an inheritance.^[12]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as mortuarie, the customary gift to the minister of a parish at a death.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A receptacle of dead things; used by Cato of philosophers who collect obsolete words.^[4][8]
2. (Medieval Latin) A mortuary: a due paid to the parish church on the death of a parishioner, sometimes in livestock.^[6][9][10]
3. (Medieval Latin) Mainmorte: the estate of one who died without a will or heirs; also an inheritance.^[3][11][12]
4. (Medieval Latin) A funeral, funeral rites; a fee paid for a burial.^[9][12][11]
5. (Medieval Latin) A necrology, a register of the dead.^[9]
6. (Medieval Latin) A book containing the Office of the Dead.^[6]

Related words

• English mortuary

Usage notes

A testator could leave his best beast to the church “in the name of the mortuary” (nomine mortuarii), for the remission of his sins.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
3. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
7. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e f g du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
10. ^ a b Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
11. ^ a b c Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum / Slovník středověké latiny v českých zemích (1977–), Prague: Academia; electronic version, Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences
12. ^ a b c d Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl