Etymologically
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supparum

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supparum1 woman's linen garment

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈsʊp.pa.rũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈsup.pa.rum][1]

Forms

supparum n (genitive supparī); second declension[1] The masculine supparus is the commoner form, and the OLD enters the word under it;[2][3] Plautus has the spelling subparus.[2][4] Manuscripts often confuse it with sīparum “topsail”.[2][3]

Etymology

The garment's name is of doubtful origin.[2][5] Varro reports that it was an Oscan word,[6][7] and the OLD, Lewis & Short and Wiktionary take it to be perhaps from Oscan on that evidence.[2][7][1] Varro also relates the inner garment subucula and the outer supparus as the garment “below” and the garment “above”.[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest examples are in Naevius and Plautus;[4][5] Plautus uses the form subparus in a pun in the Epidicus.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It was a linen garment worn by women, perhaps a kind of scarf or shawl;[2][7] Conte describes it as a short-sleeved overgarment.[4] Varro puts it above the subucula, the undergarment,[6][7] and the comic poets Afranius and Novius used it,[3][8] as did Lucan, who has the neuter plural suppara.[2][4]

In medieval British Latin it meant a woman's smock or shift, perhaps also a veil, and a kind of oversleeve; glossaries render it with English rochet.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses the word.[4][5]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus puns on the spelling subparus.[2][4][5]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro calls it Oscan and sets it beside the subucula.[6][7][5]
  • 39–65 AD – Lucan uses the neuter plural suppara.[2][4][5]
  • medieval – British glossaries gloss it as a smock or rochet.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A woman's linen garment worn over the undergarment, perhaps a shawl or scarf.[2][7][4]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A smock, shift; perhaps a veil; an oversleeve.[9]

supparum2 topsail

Forms

sīparum n (genitive sīparī); second declension[2][4] It is also spelled sīpharum, as in Fronto,[2][8] and written supparum in Lucan.[8]

Etymology

The topsail is borrowed from Ancient Greek σίφαρος (sípharos, “topsail”).[2][3][8] The OLD holds that it has nothing to do with the garment's name, though manuscripts confuse the two;[2][3] Georges and Köbler treat them as one word.[8][5] Köbler, citing Frisk, adds that the Greek word's further origin is unknown.[5]

Isidore of Seville reports the view that it was named from its separation from the other sails.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Seneca, in his letters and in the tragedy Medea.[3][4][8]

Semantic evolution

It was a small triangular sail set above the main yard.[2][3] Seneca, Lucan, Statius and Fronto use it.[8][3] Isidore describes it as a sail with a single lower corner, used to help a ship along when the wind dropped.[10] Tertullian transfers the word to the cloth spread on the crossbar of a military standard.[8]

Timeline

  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it in his letters and in the Medea.[3][4][5]
  • 39–65 AD – Lucan writes of spreading the topsails to catch the dying wind.[10][8][5]
  • 100–170 AD – Fronto has the spelling sīpharum.[2][8][5]
  • c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of the cloth of military standards.[8][5]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore explains it in his chapter on sails.[10][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (nautical) A topsail, a triangular sail set above the main yard.[2][3][4]
  2. The cloth of a military standard.[8]

Usage notes

Georges enters both words under supparum and lists the garment as a transferred sense of the sail,[8] while the OLD and Gaffiot separate them.[2][3]

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 k l m n o p q r s 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 Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d Marcus Terentius Varro, De lingua Latina (text of The Latin Library; book and paragraph numbers as there).
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ a b c d Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).