pera

Forms

pēra f (genitive pērae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek πήρα (pḗra, “leather pouch, wallet”).^[2][3][4][1] Glossaries also write it ⟨pira⟩ and ⟨poera⟩.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it in Paulus' epitome of Festus and in authors from Phaedrus on,^[5] while Köbler lists Plautus among his sources.^[4] Phaedrus begins a fable with Jupiter putting two bags on us all: peras imposuit Iuppiter nobis duas, “Jupiter has laid two bags on us”.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

It is the bag slung over the shoulder in which travellers and poor people carried their food;^[2][5] Paulus ex Festo explains that the Greeks call by this name the bag in which they store food.^[2][5] With the staff it was the mark of the wandering Cynic philosopher, in Martial and Apuleius.^[3][5] Christian Latin knew it from the Bible: the Vulgate uses it for David's shepherd's bag and in the Gospel of Luke, and Lactantius says that the disciples had five loaves and two fishes in a bag.^[3][6][5]

Medieval British writers used it for the pilgrim's scrip, a satchel for books and a money-bag, and had the proverbial mouse in a bag.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus tells the fable of the two bags.^[3][5][4]
• before 66 AD – Petronius has a strap untied from a bag.^[5][4]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial pictures a Cynic old man with staff and bag.^[3][5][4]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it for the bag of David and of the disciples.^[3][6][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bag slung over the shoulder for provisions, a satchel, wallet, scrip.^[2][3][8]
2. (Medieval Latin) A pilgrim's scrip; a book-satchel; a money-bag.^[7]

Word family

• pērātus
• pērula
• saccipērium

Related words

• hippopēra

Usage notes

Pēra is also a Roman cognomen, borne by the consul Marcus Junius Pera.^[1] Porphyrio and the scholia on Horace explain mantica, the traveller's bag, by pēra.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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