Etymologically
Log in

pulvinar

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 13:24. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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]

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