Etymologically
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muralis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [muːˈraː.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [muˈraː.lis][1]

Forms

mūrālis (neuter mūrāle); third-declension two-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin mūrus (“wall”) + -ālis.[2][3][1] De Vaan traces mūrus, older ⟨moerus⟩ and ⟨moirus⟩, to Proto-Italic *moi-ro- and Proto-Indo-European *(H)moi-ro- (“building”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler record it from Lucretius,[4][5] who uses it of the turreted crown on the head of Cybele: murali … caput … cinxere corona.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It means of or belonging to a wall, especially a city wall: Vitruvius gives the thickness of the walls, and Silius Italicus has ditches below the walls.[2][6] Herba mūrālis, the wall plant, is probably feverfew in Celsus and Pliny the Elder;[2][6] Lewis & Short take it for pellitory of the wall.[2][6] Of weapons it means used to attack or defend walls: Caesar has wall hooks and wall javelins, and Virgil a stone flung from a siege engine.[2][6] In Silius it describes a blow with the force of a battering ram.[2]

The corōna mūrālis was a crown shaped like a turreted wall, given to the soldier who first climbed the enemy's wall;[2][6] Livy, Suetonius and Gellius describe it, and Seneca uses mūrālis alone for it.[2][6]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of a turreted crown.[2][5]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar, of wall hooks and javelins.[2][5]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of the crown given to the first man on the wall.[2][5]
  • mid-15th century – English mural comes from it, first as an adjective.[7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of or connected with a wall, especially a city wall.[2][6][1]
  2. Of weapons, used to attack or defend walls; having the force of a battering ram.[2][6]
  3. Of a crown, made like a turreted wall: corōna mūrālis, the mural crown.[2][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com