pulvinarium

Forms

pulvīnārium n (genitive pulvīnāriī); second declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin pulvīnus (“cushion”) + -ārium.^[3][2] The OLD calls the origin of pulvīnus doubtful;^[4] Wiktionary connects it with pulvis (“dust, powder”), from the stuffing of a cushion.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Plautus,^[3] where someone will go in to haul a ship back up in pulvinaria, which Georges takes as the berth of a ship on the slipway.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short and Georges give it two meanings: the cushioned couch of a god in a temple, which they read in Livy, and the place where a ship lies when hauled ashore, in Plautus.^[1][2] Georges notes that Wölfflin's text of Livy has pulvīnar instead.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of the berth of a ship.^[2][3]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it, in some editions, of a god's couch.^[1][2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The cushioned couch of a god in a temple.^[1][2]
2. The place where a ship lies when hauled ashore, a berth;^[1][2] Lewis and Short take it as an anchorage.^[1][2]

Related words

• pulvīnus

Usage notes

The OLD and the TLL do not treat it as a separate word: the OLD reads in pulvinaria in Plautus as the plural of pulvīnar, with the sense of a support on which a beached ship is laid,^[4] and the TLL refers the word to its article on pulvīnar.^[6] The DMLBS likewise files medieval pulvinarium under pulvīnar.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
6. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press