scaenarius

Forms

scaenārius (feminine scaenāria, neuter scaenārium); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2] Also spelled scēnārius.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin scaena (“stage, scene”) + -ārius.^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in an inscription that Köbler dates to the 1st century AD,^[4] and the OLD defines it as “of stage scenery”: the inscription names a pictor scaenarius, a scene painter.^[1][2][5]

Semantic evolution

Ammianus Marcellinus uses scaenarii artifices for stage performers;^[2][5][3] Lewis & Short treat the word as a late form beside the usual scaenicus.^[2] Its neuter scaenarium became a noun for the place where the stage stands.^[5]

Timeline

• 1st century AD – An inscription names a pictor scaenarius, a painter of stage scenery.^[2][5][4]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus calls stage performers scaenarii artifices.^[2][5][3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of stage scenery: pictor scaenarius, a scene painter.^[1][2][5]
2. Of the stage, theatrical: artifices scaenarii, stage performers.^[2][6][3]

Word family

• scaenārium

References

1. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.