spinter

Forms

spintēr n (genitive spintēris); third declension^[1] The spelling spinthēr also occurs.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Ancient Greek σφιγκτήρ (sphinktḗr, “cord, band”),^{[2][1][4][5][6]} taken into Latin before the Classical period.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it several times in the Menaechmi, where a character is asked to have a bracelet done up as new (iubeas spinter novom reconcinnarier).^[2][1]

Semantic evolution

Festus describes it as a kind of bracelet that women of old wore on the upper left arm,^[2][3] and Lewis & Short add that it kept its place by its own elasticity.^[2] Georges describes it as an armband in the shape of a snake, worn round the upper arm.^[7] Priscian mentions the word.^[7]

British Medieval Latin used it for a bracelet and for a brooch or clasp;^[8] Osbern of Gloucester calls it indeclinable and glosses it as a brooch or bracelet.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it several times in the Menaechmi.^[1][2][6]
• second half of the 2nd century AD – Festus describes it as a bracelet worn by women of old.^[2][6]
• 6th century AD – Priscian mentions the word.^[7][6]
• c. 1000 – Ælfric glosses it in Old English in his Grammar.^[8][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A kind of bracelet or bangle worn on the upper arm.^[1][2]
2. (Medieval Latin) A brooch or clasp.^[8]

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 g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
5. ^ a b Gardani, Francesco; Pellegrini, Matteo et al. (2026), DynaMorphPro: loanwords, conversions and class shifts in Latin and Old Italian, CIRCSE / LiLa, github.com/CIRCSE/DynaMorphPro (CC BY-SA 4.0)
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ 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