Etymologically
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officina

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 19:13. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ɔf.fɪˈkiː.na][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [of.fiˈt͡ʃiː.na][1]

Forms

officīna f (genitive officīnae); first declension[1] Plautus still has the full form opificīna.[2]

Etymology

It is contracted from ⟨opificīna⟩, from opifex “craftsman” with the suffix -īna, with loss of the vowel and /pf/ becoming /ff/, as in officium.[3][1][2][4] ⟨Opifex⟩ is from opus “work” and faciō “to make”; de Vaan traces ⟨opus⟩ to Proto-Indo-European *h₃ep-os (“work”).[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short cite the full form from Plautus' Miles.[2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[5]

Semantic evolution

It was a place where things are made, a workshop, factory, as in Cicero and Caesar.[3][7]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it was a workshop.[8] In Medieval Latin it was a monastery's service building.[9] British Medieval Latin used it for a workshop and a smithy.[10] It survives in Italian fucina and, through Old French oechine, French usine.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has opificīna.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it.[7][5]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it.[7][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A workshop, factory.[3]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A monastery's service building; a smithy.[9][10]

Word family

  • officīnātor
  • officīnātrix
  • officīnālis

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  10. ^ a b 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