muria

Forms

muria f (genitive muriae); first declension^[1] A by-form muriēs, genitive muriēī, is used by Cato and Fabius Pictor and explained by Festus.^[2][3][4] No plural is found, as the grammarian Charisius already noted.^[5]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[2][5] Saalfeld, Lewis & Short and Gaffiot connect it with Ancient Greek ἁλμυρίς (halmurís, “saltiness, brine”),^[6][3][7] which Wiktionary describes as an old fishermen's term, used beside ἅλμη (hálmē, “brine”) for a fish sauce;^[1] Wiktionary also mentions Proto-Indo-European *(s)mewk- (“damp, slimy”), and Köbler connects it with Proto-Indo-European *meur- (“damp; marsh”).^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cato's treatise on farming,^[8] of olives preserved green in brine: oleae condūntur vel viridēs in muriā.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is the brine used for pickling,^[2][4] mostly in technical writers from Cato on, such as Celsus, Columella and Pliny the Elder, but also in Horace's satires and Petronius.^[5] Tuna and other cheap fish were preserved in it and eaten with it,^[4] so that it also meant a fish sauce or condiment; the scholia on Horace say that the ancients called fish sauce muria and that this was its name in the language of the Syrians.^[5] Festus describes the muriēs of the Vestal Virgins, made of coarse salt pounded, baked in a sealed pot and dissolved in water, which they used in sacrifices.^[5] Isidore defines it as water mixed with salt until it tastes like the sea.^[5] Medieval writers in Britain glossed it as brine and also as the dregs of oil, confusing it with amurca.^[9][5] It survives in Italian moia, Romanian moare, Old French muire and Spanish muera.^[5][1]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of brine for olives.^[3][8]
• 65–8 BC – Horace mentions it in his satires.^[3][8]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it in medicine.^[4][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder mentions fish preserved in it.^[4][8]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore defines it as salt water.^[5][8]
• Medieval Latin – Glossed as brine and as dregs of oil.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Brine used for pickling, salt liquor.^[2][3][4]
2. A fish sauce or condiment made from brine.^[5][4]
3. (Medieval Latin) Dregs of oil.^[9]

Word family

• muriāticus

Related words

• garum
• amurca

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
7. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ a b c 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