patibulum

Forms

patibulum n (genitive patibulī); second declension^[1] A masculine patibulus occurs in Varro and Clodius.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin pateō (“to be open, extend”) + -bulum,^[2][1][4] formed like latibulum beside lateō.^[5] Wiktionary takes it literally as a device on which one is stretched out.^[1] De Vaan explains pateō, from Proto-Italic *patē-, as an inner-Italic formation on a base ⟨*pat-⟩.^[4] The ancient grammarians derived it from pateō or patior (“to suffer”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[4][6] who has someone made to carry the patibulum through the city and then be fastened to the cross.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It was a fork-shaped yoke put on the necks of criminals, with their hands tied to it, and also a fork-shaped gibbet;^[2][3] Plautus speaks of carrying it with arms spread out.^[3] De Vaan glosses it as a horizontal beam or crossbar.^[4] Cato uses it of a fork-shaped prop for vines,^[2] and according to Nonius it was also a bar for fastening a door, as in Titinius.^[2] Church Latin has it as yoke, gibbet and ignominy.^[7] In medieval texts it is the Cross, a cross-shaped staff, the gallows, a dungeon, and torture.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of the criminal's yoke.^[2][4][6]
• 234–149 BC – Cato, of a prop for vines.^[2][6]
• end of the 2nd/beginning of the 1st century BC – Titinius, of a door bar.^[2][6]
• Medieval Latin – The Cross; the gallows.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fork-shaped yoke or gibbet to which criminals were fastened.^[2][3][1]
2. A fork-shaped prop for vines.^[2]
3. A bar for fastening a door.^[2]
4. (Medieval Latin) The Cross; the gallows; a dungeon; torture.^[8]

Related words

• pateō
• patibulātus
• crux

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill