petra

Forms

petra f (genitive petrae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétra, “rock”), whose further origin is unknown.^[2][1][3] Jerome and Isidore of Seville already noted that it is Greek.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it in verse from Plautus and Ennius on;^[4] Ennius has “covered with huge rocks”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is a rock, boulder or crag;^[2][5] Lewis & Short note that the pure Latin word is saxum.^[2][5] Festus reports Aelius Gallus' two kinds, a natural rock jutting into the sea and a man-made one, the stone that fills the spaces beside an arch up to its top, of which no other example is known.^[5][2] In prose it occurs from Gallus on, and Pliny the Elder uses it of gulls nesting on rocks and seaweed growing on them.^[4][5] The Vulgate has water brought out of the rock, and Orosius calls Christ a rock set in the middle of the world.^[5][6] Church Latin glosses it “rock”,^[7] and in Medieval Latin it is also a measure of weight.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus in verse.^[4][3]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius of huge rocks.^[5][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of gulls nesting on rocks.^[5][3]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate of water from the rock.^[5][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rock, boulder, crag.^[2][5][7][1]
2. Shaped stone used in building.^[2][5]
3. (Medieval Latin) A measure of weight.^[8]

Word family

• petrensis
• petreus
• petrinus
• petrōsus

Related words

• saxum
• rūpēs

Usage notes

As a name, Petra is the chief town of Arabia Petraea and several other places, and a hill near Dyrrachium in Caesar.^[2][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill