pulpitum

Forms

pulpitum n (genitive pulpitī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[2][3] The TLL compares culcita for its formation, but notes that neither word has been explained.^[3] Wiktionary reports a suggestion, after the American Heritage Dictionary, that it is a back-formation from the plural pulpita, perhaps through Etruscan from Ancient Greek πολύποδα (polúpoda), neuter plural of πολύπους (polúpous, “trodden by many feet”).^[1] Köbler compares Proto-Indo-European *pelpo- (“frame, structure”), with a query.^[4] Isidore of Seville connected it with populus and pūblicus.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Horace,^[4] who uses it, mostly in the plural, of the stage on which actors perform.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is a wooden platform for dramatic performances, recitations, lectures or disputations, and especially the stage for actors; the plural is common in poetry for a single stage.^[2][5] Horace has an actor run across the stage in light shoes, and Juvenal speaks of a poet whom the stage feeds.^[5] Pliny the Younger calls something mockery fit for the stage.^[5] Church Latin uses it of a lectern, pulpit or bookstand,^[6] Medieval Latin of the ambo or reader's pulpit and of a wooden frame or roofing.^[7] English pulpit (early 14th century) comes from the Late Latin sense of a raised structure on which preachers stand.^[8]

Timeline

• 65–8 BC – Horace of the stage.^[5][4]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal of the stage that feeds a poet.^[5]
• early 14th century – English pulpit.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wooden platform or scaffold for performances, recitations or lectures; a stage for actors.^[2][5][1]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A lectern, pulpit, ambo.^[6][7]
3. (Medieval Latin) A wooden frame, roofing.^[7]

Related words

• pulpitō
• English pulpit

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c 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 c d e f g 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 c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com