Etymologically
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pulpitum

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpʊɫ.pɪ.tũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpul.pi.tum][1]

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]
  • 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