paludamentum

Forms

palūdāmentum n (genitive palūdāmentī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

The OLD treats it as formed from Latin palūdātus (“wearing a general's cloak”) + -mentum.^[2] The TLL holds that its origin is unknown and that it is unclear how it and ⟨palūdātus⟩ are connected with the obscure ⟨paludus⟩.^[3] L&S and Wiktionary take it to be related to pallium and palla,^[4][1] and Köbler derives it, probably, from ⟨palla⟩.^[5]

Ancient grammarians derived it from palam (“openly”): Varro, because those who wear it are conspicuous,^[6][4] and some writers quoted by Isidore of Seville because a general who put it on declared war openly.^[7][3] Gellius denied that it was a compound.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro is the first to have it, in On the Latin Language, where he uses it of the insignia and accoutrements of soldiers.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Its usual sense was the cloak, fastened with a brooch at the shoulder, that generals and other high-ranking men wore on campaign,^[2][4] the war-time counterpart of the toga.^[3] More rarely it meant any soldier's cloak, as in a passage of Livy where a woman recognises on her brother's shoulders the cloak of her betrothed.^[4] Pliny the Elder notes that scarlet dye was reserved for generals' cloaks.^[4] Varro's and Festus' use for military insignia in general the OLD thinks probably a mistake.^[2]

Isidore of Seville describes it as a general's cloak picked out in scarlet, purple and gold, and quotes Sallust: “he exchanged the toga for the paludamentum”.^[7] Nonius says it was the garment then called a chlamys.^[3]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of military insignia.^[2][5]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust writes of exchanging the toga for the cloak.^[7][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of a soldier's cloak and a general's.^[4][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder mentions scarlet generals' cloaks.^[4][5]
• end of 4th–beginning of 5th century AD – Nonius equates it with the chlamys.^[3][5]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville describes it in the Etymologies.^[7][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A military cloak fastened with a brooch at the shoulder, worn especially by a general and other high-ranking officers.^[2][4]
2. Any soldier's cloak.^[4]
3. (plural) Military insignia (in Varro and Festus; probably a misunderstanding).^[2]

Related words

• paludatus

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 e f 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 h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Marcus Terentius Varro, De lingua Latina (text of The Latin Library; book and paragraph numbers as there).
7. ^ a b c d Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).