ostiolum

Forms

ostiolum n (genitive ostiolī); second declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is a diminutive formed from Latin ostium + -olum, “a little door”.^[1][3][4] Late Latin grammarians already listed it among the diminutives.^[3] The TLL gives Italian usciolo as a descendant.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the 1st century AD, in Columella's work on farming and in Petronius, meaning a small door.^[2][5][4]

Semantic evolution

Pliny the Elder uses it too,^[2] and the Vulgate has it several times, among them for hidden little doors in Daniel.^[2][6] Festus' epitome explains foreculae as ostiola.^[3] Köbler records the plural for a double door.^[4]

In British Medieval Latin it meant a small door or gate and any opening, also the little door of a reliquary, and figuratively the door of the heart.^[7]

Timeline

• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of a small door.^[2][4]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it in the Satyricon.^[5][6][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it.^[2][4]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it in Kings, Ezekiel and Daniel.^[6][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small door.^[1][2][8]
2. (Medieval Latin) A small gate; an opening; the door of a reliquary.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon 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 c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson