reliquiarium

Forms

reliquiārium n (genitive reliquiāriī); second declension.^[1][2] Medieval Latin also reliquiāre.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin reliquiae (“remains”) + -ārium.^[1][2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first sense is collective, what is left over: the Old Latin Genesis (45:7), quoted by Augustine (354–430), has Joseph tell his brothers that God wished to nourish their reliquiārium magnum, where the Vulgate has another word.^[1][4]

Semantic evolution

In the Confessions Augustine sees in his mother's grief at his departure the inheritance of Eve: arguebatur in ea reliquiarium Evae, cum gemitu quaerens quod cum gemitu pepererat (“the heritage of Eve showed in her, seeking with groaning what she had borne with groaning”).^[1][2]

In Medieval and Ecclesiastical Latin it is a reliquary, a container for relics.^[3][5] The Italian reliquiario comes from the Late Latin word.^[2]

Timeline

• 354–430 AD – Augustine quotes the Old Latin Genesis with it and uses it for the heritage of Eve in the Confessions.^[1][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) A remnant, what is left of a people.^[1]
2. (Late Latin) Inheritance, heritage.^[1][2]
3. (Medieval Latin, Ecclesiastical Latin) A reliquary, a container for relics.^[3][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
2. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson