pluviale

Forms

pluviāle n (genitive pluviālis); third declension^[1][2] Variant spellings include puviale and piviale,^[3][1] and plumale;^[1] Niermeyer also records the form pluvialis.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin pluviālis (“of rain”), used as a noun in the neuter.^[4][5] The adjective is formed from pluvia (“rain”),^[6] which de Vaan lists among the derivatives of pluō (“to rain”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in Agnellus's Liber pontificalis (831–846), one of the sources Köbler gives for its senses “rain cloak” and “choir cope”.^[1]

Semantic evolution

Du Cange cites the phrases pallium pluviale and vestis pluvialis for a garment that covers the whole person and keeps off the rain.^[5] He reports pluviales lacernae, rain cloaks, from the old commentators on Juvenal, and a Life of Leo IX that calls the rain garment the one “called cappa”.^[5] In church use it became the cope, the liturgical cloak a priest put on for solemn ceremonies,^[3][2][4] and in Poland also a coronation mantle.^[4] A Polish record of 1418 has a bishop take off the chasuble after Mass and put on the pluviale, “that is, the cappa”.^[4] The Italian piviale “cope” goes back to it.^[8]

Timeline

• 831–846 – Agnellus uses it in his Liber pontificalis.^[1]
• 1418 – A Polish record calls it a cappa put on by a bishop after Mass.^[4]
• 1544 – A Polish gloss renders the plural with Polish capy “copes”.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) A cloak worn against rain.^[1][5]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A cope, the priest's liturgical cloak.^[3][2][4]
3. (Medieval Latin) A coronation mantle.^[4]

Related words

• pluviālis
• pluvia
• pluō
• cappa

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
2. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
3. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
5. ^ a b c d du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier