pagina

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈpaː.ɡɪ.na]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈpaː.d͡ʒi.na]^[1]

Forms

pāgina f (genitive pāginae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is derived from the root of pangō “to fix, fasten”, like pāgus.^[2][3][4] The verb is inherited from Proto-Italic *pang-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ph₂-n-ǵ-.^[4] The sense may come from papyrus sheets fastened to one another, or from letters “fixed” on them.^[1] Festus says pages are so called because verses are fastened on them.^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Cicero onwards,^[4][6] who writes “while I was holding this page” in a letter to his brother.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It was a column or page of writing on a papyrus roll, a leaf of a book, and by extension a piece of writing or a book.^[2][7][8] Cicero speaks of the last page of Plato's Phaedrus.^[2]

Pliny the Elder used it of the leaf of a door.^[2] In Medieval Latin it was a charter or will, sacra pagina was Holy Scripture, and it also meant a pageant in a cycle of mystery plays, or the stage it was played on.^[6][1] English page came from it through French in the 1580s, and pageant perhaps from its medieval sense in the late 14th century.^[9]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a page of a letter.^[5][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of door leaves.^[2][6]
• late 14th century – English pageant is recorded.^[9]
• 1580s – English page is recorded.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A column or page of writing; a leaf.^[2][1]
2. A piece of writing; a book.^[1][6]
3. The leaf of a door.^[2][1]
4. (Medieval Latin) A charter, legal document, sacra pagina: Holy Scripture.^[1][6]
5. (Medieval Latin) A pageant; its stage.^[1]

Word family

• pāgella
• pāginula
• pāginālis
• pāginātus

Related words

• pāgus
• pāngō
• English page
• English pageant

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. ^ 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. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com