sceptrum

Forms

scēptrum n (genitive scēptrī); second declension^[1] Varro cites a spelling scaeptrum.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek σκῆπτρον (skêptron, “staff, sceptre”).^[2][3][4] The Greek noun comes from σκήπτω (skḗptō, “to prop, lean on”) with the instrument suffix ⟨-τρον⟩.^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Cicero.^[5] In the Pro Sestio King Ptolemy sits with his purple, his sceptre and his royal insignia.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a royal staff or sceptre, and Juvenal uses it of the ivory staff carried by a general in triumph; a Priapic poem uses it obscenely of the phallus.^[2] By metonymy it is the power the sceptre stands for, kingship: an old tragedy has “I rule in Argos, Pelops left me the sceptre”.^[2] Pliny the Elder gives it as a name for the shrub aspalathus.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “sceptre, royal staff, symbol of authority”.^[6] English sceptre (c. 1300) comes from it, in part through Old French.^[4]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a king's sceptre.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a shrub.^[2][5]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal of a general's staff.^[2][5]
• c. 1300 – English sceptre.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A royal staff, sceptre.^[2][1][6]
2. (by metonymy) Royal power, sovereignty, kingship.^[2][1]
3. A name of the shrub aspalathus.^[2]

Word family

• scēptrifer
• scēptriger

Related words

• English sceptre

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson