Etymologically
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rudimentum

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Forms

rudīmentum n (genitive rudīmentī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin rudis1 (“rough, raw, untrained”) + -mentum.[2][1][3] De Vaan gives two competing etymologies for rudis: a link with Old High German grioz (“sand, gravel”) and Lithuanian grúdas (“corn”), which would need a questionable loss of initial /gʰ/ in Latin, and the one most handbooks prefer, from the word for “red”, which Risch derives from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rudʰ-i-; de Vaan objects that neither the adjective nor rūdus (“rubble”) shows any trace of a meaning “red”.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Livy,[3] who speaks of the first trial of a boy's reign, rudimentum primum puerilis regni.[2][5] Virgil has the hard first lessons of war, dura rudimenta belli.[5] Lewis & Short note that it is not found before the Augustan age.[5]

Semantic evolution

It was used most often in the army, of a soldier's first training: Livy has rudimentum militare and Velleius Paterculus rudimenta militiae.[5] The phrase rudimentum ponere or rudimenta deponere meant to gain one's first experience or to finish one's apprenticeship.[2][5] By metonymy it was the first essay that came out of such lessons, as in Ovid's turpe rudimentum, “a shameful first exploit”.[2] Quintilian speaks of the first rudiments of rhetoric,[5] Petronius of sketches by Protogenes,[5] and Suetonius of first steps in public duties.[5] In Aulus Gellius it is the first beginnings of something that will grow, the beginnings of life.[2] In Medieval Latin it meant a beginning or early stage and also teaching and first lessons.[6] English borrowed rudiment in the 1540s, from French or directly from Latin.[7]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil, the first lessons of war.[5][3]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, a first trial and military training.[5][3]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, “a first exploit”.[2][3]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian, the first principles of rhetoric.[5][3]
  • c. 165 AD – Aulus Gellius, the beginnings of life.[2][3]
  • 639–709 AD – Aldhelm, of first exercises of the mind.[6][3]
  • 1540s – Borrowed into English as rudiment.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. First lessons, early training, apprenticeship, especially in the army; often plural.[2][5]
  2. A first experience or trial;[2][5] rudimentum ponere, to gain one's first experience.[2][5]
  3. A first attempt or essay, the fruit of one's early lessons.[2][5]
  4. Plural: the first principles, rudiments (of an art or study).[5][1]
  5. The first beginnings of something that will develop.[2]
  6. (Medieval Latin) Teaching, instruction.[6]

Usage notes

Lewis & Short compare tīrōcinium, the usual word for a recruit's first service.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c 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 c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ 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 m n o p q Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c 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
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com