navigium

Forms

nāvigium n (genitive nāvigiī or nāvigī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin nāvigō (“to sail”) + -ium, as rēmigium is from rēmigō.^[2][3][1] The verb comes from nāvis (“ship”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *neh₂-u- (“ship”), probably “the floating one”, cognate with Ancient Greek ναῦς (naûs) and Sanskrit नौ (náu-).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from the Rhetorica ad Herennium on, and de Vaan from Lucretius.^[3][4] Cicero, De oratore, notes that when the rowers stop a ship (nāvigium) under way, it keeps its motion.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Nāvigium is any vessel or craft, from a boat to a ship; the jurist Scaevola also uses it for a voyage.^[2] Döderlein calls it the most general word, beside nāvis, an ordinary ship for long voyages, and the names of skiffs and warboats.^[5]

In medieval Latin it is also a fleet or squadron, a ferry and the passage money paid for it, a ship canal, and navigation or a sea voyage.^[6] Its plural nāvigia passed through Old French into English as navy in the mid-14th century.^[7]

Timeline

• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium, its first recorded use.^[3][8]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it.^[4][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a ship under oars.^[2][8]
• mid-14th century – English navy, through Old French, from the plural.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vessel, craft, ship, boat.^[2][1][9]
2. A voyage.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) A fleet, squadron; a ferry; passage money; a ship canal; navigation.^[6]

Related words

• nāvis
• nāvigō
• English navy

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson