stragulus

Forms

strāgulus (feminine strāgula, neuter strāgulum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed with -ulus on a stem ⟨strāg-⟩, as in strāgēs (“overthrow, heap”),^[2] and belongs with sternō (“to spread, strew”).^[3][4][1] De Vaan traces sternō to Proto-Italic *sterna- and Proto-Indo-European *st(e)r-n-h3- (“to spread, strew”).^[5] Cognate with Sanskrit स्तृणाति (str̥ṇā́ti, “spreads out, strews”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[4] who has vestis strāgula, coverings, in his speech for Roscius of Amerinus and in the Verrines.^[3]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it is used mainly in vestis strāgula or vestīmenta strāgula, cloth used as bedding, blankets, rugs, coverlets or carpets,^[2][3] as in Cicero, Livy and Horace.^[3] The jurist Labeo, quoted in the Digest, says every pallium is stragula vestis, what the Greeks call περίστρωμα (perístrōma).^[3] As a noun the feminine strāgula is a pall over a corpse in Petronius and a horse-cloth in the Digest, and the neuter strāgulum is a spread, rug or mattress:^[3] Varro explains that this was called strāgulum from spreading, a sternendo.^[3] Cicero and Tibullus use it of a bedspread, and Petronius and Suetonius of the cover over a body.^[3] In Church Latin it is a bedspread or blanket, and strāgula a pall.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of coverings and bedspreads.^[3][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro, on the name strāgulum.^[3][4]
• before 66 AD – Petronius, of a pall over a corpse.^[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Serving for covering or spreading;^[2][3][1] vestis strāgula, a blanket, coverlet, rug, carpet.^[2][3][1]

Noun

1. strāgula: a pall over a corpse; a horse-cloth.^[3][6]
2. strāgulum: a spread, rug, mattress, bedspread.^[3][6]

Word family

• strāgula
• strāgulum

Related words

• sternō
• strāgēs
• strātum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson