suppositorium

Forms

suppositōrium n (genitive suppositōriī or suppositōrī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin suppōnō + -tōrium, from the verb meaning “to put under”.^[1] Gaffiot and Etymonline take it as the neuter of the adjective suppositōrius (“placed underneath”), used as a noun.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Gregory the Great mentions in a letter a silver suppositorium among church vessels, a stand or tray,^[2][4][5] which Niermeyer explains as a saucer or a kind of paten.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word named things set underneath: Köbler lists a stand, support, footstool, serving board and saucer.^[5] Greek–Latin glossaries gloss it with Greek words for things placed underneath, one of them a footstool, and one has the form subposturium among silver vessels.^[4]

As a medical term it meant a suppository, a plug of medicine inserted into the body: Gaffiot has this sense from the Greek–Latin glossaries,^[2] and Peter of Blois recommends a suppositorium or a clyster for a disobedient belly.^[4] Wiktionary labels this sense Medieval and New Latin.^[1] English borrowed it in the late 14th century as suppositorie.^[3]

Timeline

• 540–604 AD – Gregory the Great mentions a silver suppositorium among church vessels.^[2][4][5]
• late 14th century – English borrows the medical sense as suppositorie.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stand, support or tray set under something; a saucer, a kind of paten.^[2][6][5]
2. (medicine) A suppository.^[2][4][1]

Related words

• English suppository

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill