Etymologically
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statura

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Forms

statūra f (genitive statūrae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin stō (“to stand”) + -ūra.[2][3][4] Lewis & Short connect it with status and take its first sense as "an upright posture".[5] The verb goes back to Proto-Italic *sta-ē-je/o- (“to stand”) and Proto-Indo-European *sth₂-eh₁-ie/o-.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,[3] who describes a man of fitting stature and one not tall.[5]

Semantic evolution

It is the height of the body standing upright, stature.[2][5] Cicero asks what face and what stature a certain man had, and speaks of how well the body's shape, form and stature suit nature.[5] The Rhetorica ad Herennium wants a lyre player whose stature suits his dignity, and Caesar has men of such small stature.[5][4] Columella extends it to the size of cattle and to the height of a shoot.[4] Medieval Latin keeps the sense of a man's height,[7] and British sources also use it of other things' height and, figuratively, of a lofty position.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a man's stature.[5][3]
  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius.[5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a person's stature.[5]
  • 1st century AD – Columella of cattle and plants.[4]
  • c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius of a tall man.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The height of the body standing upright, stature.[2][5][1][9]
  2. The size of an animal or the height of a plant.[4]
  3. (Medieval Latin) Height or extent of a thing;[8] (figurative) a lofty position.[8]

Word family

  • staturosus

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b c 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
  9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson