onerarius

Forms

onerārius (feminine onerāria, neuter onerārium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin onus (“load”) + -ārius.^[2][1][3] The noun onus goes back to Proto-Italic *onos and Proto-Indo-European *h₃en-os (“load”).^[4] Cognate with Sanskrit अनस् (ánas-, “heavy cart”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Thesaurus finds it in a few passages each from Naevius, Plautus, Sisenna and Cicero on.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means used for carrying loads, especially of ships: navis oneraria is a cargo ship or transport, opposed to the light actuaria in Sisenna and frequent in Caesar.^[2][5] Livy has iumenta oneraria, beasts of burden.^[5] As a feminine noun, with navis understood, oneraria is a merchant ship or transport, as in Cicero.^[2][5]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius.^[3][6]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a merchant ship.^[5][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of transport ships.^[5][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. For carrying loads;^[2][5][1] navis oneraria, a cargo ship, transport;^[2][5][1] iumenta oneraria, beasts of burden.^[2][5][1]

Noun

1. (feminine) A merchant ship, transport.^[2][5]

Related words

• onus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d 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 e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de