praefurnium

Forms

praefurnium n (genitive praefurniī or praefurnī); second declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin prae- (“in front”) + furnus (“oven”) + -ium.^[1][3][4] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of fornus, which he takes to be the original form, with ⟨furn-⟩ spreading in part of Roman speech; he traces it to Proto-Italic *χworno- and Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰr-no- (“heat; oven”).^[5] Cognates include Old Irish gorn (“fire”) and Sanskrit घृण (ghr̥ṇá-, “heat, glow”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Cato's De agri cultura, in the instructions for a lime kiln: si uno praefurnio coques (“if you burn with one stoke-hole”).^[2][3] He also warns that the wind must not reach the furnace mouth.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Vitruvius uses it for the furnace room that heats a bath, called Ancient Greek προπνιγεῖον (propnigeîon),^[2][6][3] and for the mouth of a small furnace for making lampblack, which is closed so that the flame does not escape.^[3]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of the stoke-hole of a lime kiln.^[3][4]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of the furnace of a bath.^[3][2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The mouth or stoke-hole of a furnace or kiln, through which fuel is fed.^[1][2]
2. The heating room of a bath.^[2][6]

Related words

• furnus
• fornāx

References

1. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn