pecorarius

Forms

pecorārius m (genitive pecorāriī or pecorārī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin pecus¹ + -ārius, from the stem ⟨pecor-⟩ of the noun meaning “livestock”, with the suffix of agent nouns.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first dated use is in a Christian inscription of Rome from 392–395, where a pecorarius is a master herdsman, the chief of the shepherds.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Glossaries define it as one who leases or farms cattle^[4] or the public pastures and herds.^[5] In medieval charters it is a herdsman or cowherd: a charter of the Lombard king Desiderius speaks of a pecorarius who is to pasture a monastery's cows.^[6][7] The early medieval laws of the Lombards use it for a herdsman or owner of herds,^[8] and in medieval Poland it also named the duke's dependants who kept his cattle.^[9]

The noun lives on in the Romance languages: Italian pecoraio and Portuguese pegureiro.^[2]

Timeline

• 392–395 – A Christian inscription of Rome calls a chief herdsman pecorarius.^[2]
• mid-13th century – A Polish charter uses it of the duke's cattle-keeping servants.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) A chief herdsman, master of the shepherds.^[2]
2. (glossaries) One who leases cattle or farms the public pastures.^[5][4]
3. (Medieval Latin) A herdsman, cowherd.^[7][6][9]
4. (Medieval Latin) In Poland, one of the duke's servants who kept his cattle.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Liber exquisiti xenii: Lexikon frühmittelalterlicher Rechtswörter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ a b c d Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl