stramen

Forms

strāmen n (genitive strāminis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin sternō (“to spread, strew”) + -men, literally “what is strewn”.^[2][3][4] The verb goes back to Proto-Italic *sterna- and Proto-Indo-European *st(e)r-n-h₃- (“to spread, strew”).^[5] Wiktionary compares the parallel formations Sanskrit स्तरीमन् (stárīman) and Ancient Greek στρῶμα (strôma), and suggests a common Proto-Indo-European *stérh₃mn̥ (“that which is strewn; bedding”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Virgil is the first author to use it:^[4] in the Aeneid a dead youth is laid out on a bed of rustic straw, the sense “straw spread as bedding, litter”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

A poetic word, later also used in prose,^[6] it meant straw or similar material laid down as bedding,^[2][6] straw used to thatch a hut, as in Ovid,^[2][7] and the litter of a bird's nest in Pliny the Elder.^[7] Valerius Flaccus uses it for a coverlet or rug,^[2][7] and Caelius Aurelianus for the softness of bedding.^[8]

Medieval Latin kept the word for straw, as in Gildas and in English charters,^[9] and it lives on in Italian strame.^[7]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it for a bed of straw in the Aeneid.^[2][4]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it for the thatch of a hut.^[2][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for the litter of a nest.^[7]
• 1165 – It appears in an English charter.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. straw or similar material spread as bedding; litter.^[2][6]
2. Straw used for thatching.^[2]
3. A coverlet or rug.^[2][8]

Word family

• strāmineus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b 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