Etymologically
Log in

porticus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 18 October 2026 at 23:44. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpɔr.tɪ.kʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpɔr.ti.kus][1]

Forms

porticus f (genitive porticūs); fourth declension[1] It is masculine once in Petronius.[2] An inscription has the second-declension plural porticōs.[2][3]

Etymology

It is probably formed from porta (“gate”) with the suffix -cus, taking the fourth declension after domus (“house”).[2][1][4] De Vaan traces ⟨porta⟩ to Proto-Italic *portā- (“gate, door”) and a participle Proto-Indo-European *pr̥-to- (“crossed”) of the root Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to cross”), cognate with Oscan púrtam (“gate”) and Old High German furt (“ford”).[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan gives Plautus as its first author, who speaks of pacing out all the colonnades.[5][3] In a tragedy of Ennius the wounded fill the porticoes of Aesculapius.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is a covered walk with a roof on columns, a colonnade or portico.[2][3] In Caesar it is a covered way in siegeworks, and in Calpurnius the gallery at the top of an amphitheatre, where the poor watched.[2] It is above all the Stoa at Athens where Zeno taught, and so the Stoic school: Cicero has Chrysippus, thought to prop up the Porch of the Stoics.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “porch, vestibule”.[7] In Medieval Latin it is the narthex at the west end of a church and the apse or ambulatory at the east end.[8] English porch (c. 1300, through Old French) and portico (c. 1600, through Italian) both come from it.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of colonnades.[5][3][6]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius of the porticoes of Aesculapius.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of the Stoic school.[2][6]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of a covered way in siegeworks.[2][6]
  • c. 1300 – English porch.[4]
  • c. 1600 – English portico.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A colonnade, covered walk, portico.[2][1][7]
  2. A covered way (in siegeworks); the top gallery of an amphitheatre.[2]
  3. The Stoa at Athens; the Stoic school.[2]
  4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A porch, vestibule.[7]
  5. (Medieval Latin) The narthex of a church; the apse or ambulatory of the choir.[8]

Word family

  • portex
  • porticātiō
  • porticuncula
  • quadriporticus
  • porticula

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill