seminarius

Forms

sēminārius (feminine sēmināria, neuter sēminārium); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin sēmen (“seed”) + -ārius.^[1][3] De Vaan lists both among the derivatives of serō¹ (“to sow”).^[4] sēmen goes back to Proto-Italic *sēmn̥ and Proto-Indo-European *séh₁mn̥.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato, in his work on farming, has a pīlum sēminārium, a pestle used for seed, perhaps together with a sieve for separating it.^[1][2]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin the adjective is rare; the neuter sēminārium became a noun for a nursery or seed plot,^[2][5] and an inscription has the feminine sēmināria for a woman who sold seed.^[5] Medieval writers in Britain used the adjective of what concerns seed or generation in animals and plants, and figuratively for “germinal, seminal”: Bede speaks of a seminal matter (sēmināria māteriēs).^[6] Odo of Cambrai uses the masculine as a noun for a begetter.^[7] Wiktionary also gives it as a noun for a seminarian.^[3]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato speaks of a pīlum sēminārium.^[1][2][7]
• early 8th century – Bede uses it in the sense “seminal”.^[6][7]
• before 1113 – Odo of Cambrai uses it as a noun for a begetter.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or for seed: pīlum sēminārium, a pestle for seed.^[1][2]
2. (Medieval Latin) Of generation or propagation, seminal, germinal;^[6] vāsa sēmināria, the seminal vessels.^[6]

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) A begetter, father.^[7]
2. A seminarian.^[3]

Word family

• sēminārium

Usage notes

The noun sēminārium “nursery, seed plot” has its own entry.^[2][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d 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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de