scrinium

Forms

scrīnium n (genitive scrīniī or scrīnī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[2][3] De Vaan says it could in theory come from a root Proto-Indo-European *(s)krei-, to which Pokorny assigns Lithuanian skríeti (“to rotate, circle, fly”) and Lithuanian kreĩvas (“crooked”), but nothing shows that it must be derived from a root meaning "crooked" or "turn", so one cannot go further.^[3] Köbler gives the same root,^[4] and Wiktionary also mentions similar container words in Slavic and Germanic.^[1] Lewis & Short connected it with scrībō (“to write”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan finds it first in Sallust,^[3] who in the Catiline has a praetor ordered to bring the letter-case with the letters he had received from the envoys.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is a case or chest for letters and papers, a writing case, and a box for papyrus rolls in a bookshop or library:^[2] Catullus, Horace, Ovid, Juvenal and Martial use it of book-boxes, Seneca of a case of letters.^[5] Lewis & Short note it is not in Cicero.^[5] It is also a case for other things: Pliny the Elder tells of a perfume casket taken among the spoils of Darius.^[2][5] Under the later emperors the scrīnia were the offices of the imperial government: of the memorials, of letters, of petitions and of Greek letters.^[5][6] In Medieval Latin it is the office of a city council, the papal and royal chanceries, church archives, the royal treasury and a reliquary.^[6]

Timeline

• 86–34 BC – Sallust of a case for letters.^[5][3]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of book-boxes.^[5][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a perfume casket.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A case for letters or papers, a writing case; a box for book rolls.^[2][5][1]
2. A box or casket for other things.^[2][5]
3. (Late Latin) An office of the imperial government.^[5][6]
4. (Medieval Latin) A chancery; archives; a treasury.^[6][1]
5. (Medieval Latin) A reliquary.^[6][1]

Word family

• scrīniārius
• scrīniolum
• primiscrinius

Related words

• capsa
• cista

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill