Etymologically
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muro

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Forms

mūrō (present infinitive mūrāre, perfect active mūrāvī, supine mūrātum); first conjugation[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin murus (“wall”),[3][1][2] a Late Latin verb.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is a Late Latin word for providing with walls:[3] Jerome speaks of muratae urbes, walled cities,[1] and Vegetius of a murata civitas and murata castella.[1][3]

Semantic evolution

Its sense was “to wall, fortify with a wall”: the Vetus Latina has it in Leviticus,[5] and Servius glosses Virgil's turrigerae (“tower-crowned”) with it.[6] It was also used figuratively of defences that are not physical: Augustine says that God walled his people with a spiritual defence,[6] and in a sermon he stands “walled” against the arrows of an opponent's reasoning.[1]

In medieval Latin it also meant to build a wall or to do mason's work,[7][4][8] and to build in stone.[9][10] A Polish law of 1472 contrasts a walled city, civitas murata, with an open one.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome writes of muratae urbes.[1][11]
  • 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it figuratively.[1][6][11]
  • c. 400 AD – Vegetius writes of walled cities and forts.[1][3][11]
  • c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus uses it of walling a city.[3][2][11]
  • c. 1140 – An English charter has it for the service of building a wall.[4]
  • 1472 – A Polish law contrasts walled cities with open ones.[9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To wall, provide or fortify with walls.[3][1][2][5]
  2. (figurative) To defend, protect.[6][1]
  3. (Medieval Latin, intransitive) To build or repair a wall; to do mason's work.[7][4]
  4. (Medieval Latin) To build in stone or brick.[9][8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  2. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d 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
  5. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
  9. ^ a b c d Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de