platea

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [pɫaˈteː.a]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [plaˈtɛː.a]^[1]

Forms

platēa f (genitive platēae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα (plateîa, “broad street”), short for ⟨πλατεῖα ὁδός⟩ “broad way”, feminine of πλατύς (platús, “broad”).^[2][1][3] Catullus and Horace scan it ⟨platĕa⟩.^[4] Inscriptions have ⟨platia⟩.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Plautus, whom he dates c. 250–184 BC, and Plautus uses it of a street.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

It meant a broad street in a city, as in Plautus, Terence and Caesar, and Horace's pūrae sunt plateae “the streets are clear”.^[2][4][6] In Lampridius it meant a courtyard.^[6]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant a street or highway.^[7] Medieval Latin used it for a highway, a plot of land, and a square, with spellings placea and plaza.^[8] It survives in Italian piazza, French place and Portuguese praça, and Medieval Latin placea and Old French place gave English place about 1200.^[1][9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a street.^[4][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of a street.^[4][5]
• c. 1200 – English place is recorded.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A broad street.^[2]
2. A courtyard.^[6]
3. (Medieval Latin) A highway; a plot; a square.^[8]

Related words

• English place
• English plaza
• English piazza

Usage notes

A different platea in Pliny the Elder is a bird, perhaps the spoonbill, also called platalea.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com