planetarius

Forms

planētārius m (genitive planētāriī); second declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin planēta (“planet”) + -ārius.^[3][1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short, Georges and Gaffiot cite it from Augustine's Confessions (4.3), where he speaks of illos planetarios, quos mathematicos vocant, “those planet-men whom they call mathematicians”, meaning astrologers.^[4][1][2] The TLL, however, treats planetarius there as an old conjecture for the word planus², “impostor”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short label it Ecclesiastical Latin.^[4] In the 12th century John of Salisbury pairs mathematici vel planetarii and warns against following their error.^[3] Renaissance writers took it up again from Augustine: Pico cites the passage of the Confessions on the planetarii, glossing them as astrologers, and Beroaldo calls them those commonly named astrologers.^[6] The DMLBS also gives the sense of an astronomer.^[3]

Timeline

• 354–430 AD – Augustine's Confessions speak of planetarii, in the reading most dictionaries follow.^[4][1][5][7]
• c. 1130–1180 – John of Salisbury writes of mathematici vel planetarii.^[3]
• 1532 – Bonifacius Amerbach, in a letter, asks about an Italian Jewish soothsayer, ariolatorem sive planetarium.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) An astrologer.^[4][1][2][8]
2. (Medieval Latin) One who studies the movement of the planets, an astronomer or astrologer.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
2. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
3. ^ a b c d e 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
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson