scorteus

Forms

scorteus (feminine scortea, neuter scorteum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin scortum (“skin, hide”) + -eus.^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces scortum back to Proto-Italic *skort-o- and Proto-Indo-European *sk(o)rt-o- (“cutting”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it from Varro on,^[3] who notes that things made of hide and skins were still called scortea.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant made of hide or leather, as of a cushion in Celsus or of objects in Ovid and Petronius,^[4] and the feminine was used as a noun for a weatherproof coat of hide.^[2] Apuleius plays on it with scortum “prostitute”, speaking of a leathery harlot.^[2] Jerome's chronicle mentions leather coins (asses scortei).^[4]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro discusses the word.^[4][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it.^[4][5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of a leather cushion.^[4][5]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it in a pun on scortum.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made of hide or leather; leathern.^[2][4]
2. Resembling hide in texture, leathery.^[2]

Noun

1. (feminine) A weatherproof coat of hide.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de