primordium

Forms

prīmōrdium n (genitive prīmōrdiī or prīmōrdī); second declension^[1] Lucretius splits it as ōrdia prīma.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from prīmus (“first”) and ⟨-ordium⟩, as in exōrdium (“beginning”), from ōrdior (“to lay the warp, begin”).^[2][1] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of ⟨ōrdior⟩, whose first meaning he takes to be a weaving term, the threads laid in order on the loom; he reconstructs Proto-Italic *ordi- (“row, arrangement”) and tentatively Proto-Indo-European *h₂or-d-.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pacuvius uses it in the singular: quod prīmōrdium capessam, “what beginning shall I make”.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

It is mostly plural, beginnings, origin or source, as Cicero's “from Jupiter the beginnings of the Muses”, and the singular prīmōrdiō means “at first”.^[2] An inscription uses it of entry into a priestly office.^[2] In the plural it is also the first elements or rudiments of a thing (Cicero), and in Lucretius the first bodies, the atoms, from which all things are made.^[2][5]

Church Latin glosses it “origin, beginning”,^[6] and medieval Latin used the plural for the rudiments of a doctrine.^[7]

Timeline

• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius in the singular.^[2][4]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the first elements of things.^[2][5][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of origins and rudiments.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chiefly plural) Beginnings, origin, source, prīmōrdiō, originally.^[2][1][6]
2. Entry into an office.^[2]
3. (plural) First elements, rudiments, (Lucretius) the atoms.^[2][5][7]

Word family

• prīmōrdiālis

Related words

• ōrdior
• exōrdium
• prīmus
• initium

Usage notes

Döderlein sets prīmōrdia, the first beginnings from which a thing develops, beside initium, the mere point where a thing begins.^[8]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper