oratorium

Forms

ōrātōrium n (genitive ōrātōriī); second declension^[1][2] Manuscripts sometimes treat it as masculine or as a first-declension noun, and some write it with ⟨h⟩.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ōrātōrius (“of or for praying”), the neuter used as a noun, as if with templum understood.^[1][4] It answers to Greek εὐκτήριον (euktḗrion).^[3][5]

Augustine explained that nothing should be done in an oratory except what it was made for, from which it took its name,^[3][6] and Isidore of Seville that it is consecrated to prayer alone, whence its name.^[7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from the Vulgate, Augustine and the Theodosian Code on.^[3] In the Vulgate “Judith ingressa est oratorium”, Judith went into the place of prayer.^[1]

Semantic evolution

In Late Latin it named any place set apart for prayer, whether in a church, a monastery or a martyr's shrine, and also chapels and churches themselves; it renders Greek words for a house of prayer.^[3] Monastic rules have it for the oratory of the monastery, and the Rule of Benedict gives that a chapter of its own;^[3] by metonymy it could mean the monks at prayer or their common prayer.^[3]

Medieval Latin used it for a chapel in the legal sense, a church without full parish rights, a chapel next to a church, a basilica, a parish church or an abbey church, and even a kneeler.^[8] Du Cange takes it as a palace in one passage of the Annals of Saint-Bertin for the year 877.^[5] In modern canon law it is a place set aside, with the permission of the ordinary, for the worship of a community.^[9]

It lives on in Old French oreor and Old Provençal orador,^[3] and in Italian oratorio.^[6] English oratory, a small chapel, comes from Late Latin, partly through Old French; the musical oratorio is named from the services held in the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri in Rome.^[4]

Timeline

• 354–430 AD – Augustine says that nothing should be done in an oratory but prayer.^[3][6][10]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate has it in the Book of Judith.^[1][10]
• 438 AD – The Theodosian Code names the altars and the oratory of a temple together.^[3][6][10]
• 529 AD – The Rule of Benedict has a chapter on the oratory of the monastery.^[3][10]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains its name from prayer.^[7][10]
• early 14th century – English borrows it as oratorie, a small chapel.^[4]
• 1727 – English oratorio for a musical composition, from Italian.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A place of prayer, an oratory, chapel.^[1][3][9][8]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The monks at prayer; their common prayer.^[3]
3. (Medieval Latin) A chapel in the legal sense, a church without full parish rights; a chapel next to a church.^[8]
4. (Medieval Latin) A basilica, a parish church, an abbey church.^[8]
5. (Medieval Latin) A kneeler, hassock.^[8]
6. (Medieval Latin) A palace.^[5]

Related words

• ōrātiō
• ōrātōria
• English oratory
• English oratorio

References

1. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ 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 h i j k l m n Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
6. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
8. ^ a b c d e Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de