pulvinar

Forms

pulvīnar n (genitive pulvīnāris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pulvīnus (“cushion”) + -ar.^[2][1][3] De Vaan lists the noun for "cushion" among the derivatives of pulvis (“dust”), whose further origin is uncertain.^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] in whose Casina someone says he will go in to haul his ship back up onto its supports.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is above all the cushioned couch on which the images of the gods were set at a lectisternium:^[2][5] Hemina mentions public and private banquets at such couches, and Horace says it is time to deck the couches of the gods with Salian feasts.^[2][5] Ad omnia pulvīnāria, "at all the couches", means at all the temples, as in Cicero and Livy of public thanksgivings.^[5] The honour of a pulvīnar was also given to people treated as gods: Cicero and Suetonius mention Caesar's.^[5] Catullus uses it of the marriage bed of a goddess, and Suetonius of the emperor's seat in the Circus.^[2][5] More generally it is a sofa or seat of honour, as Ovid of Livia and Juvenal of Messalina.^[5] Döderlein distinguishes it from pulvīnus, the cushion of ordinary life, as the cushion of solemn religious occasions.^[6] Stelten glosses it "pillow".^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a ship's supports.^[2][4]
• c. 146 BC – Hemina of banquets at the couches of the gods.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of thanksgivings at all the temples.^[5]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of a goddess's marriage bed.^[2]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius of the emperor's seat in the Circus.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cushioned couch for the images of the gods at a lectisternium;^[2][5][1] (plural) the temples.^[2][5][1]
2. The couch of a person given divine honours; a bed of state.^[2][5][1]
3. A sofa, cushioned seat of honour; the emperor's seat in the Circus.^[5][1]
4. A support on which a beached ship is laid.^[2]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A pillow.^[7]

Related words

• pulvīnus
• pulvis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson