symphoniacus

Forms

symphōniacus (feminine symphōniaca, neuter symphōniacum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek συμφωνιακός (sumphōniakós, “musical”),^[2][3][4] and belongs with the Latin noun symphōnia.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero,^[4] who speaks of symphōniacī puerī and servī, slave boys and slaves trained to sing or play in a band.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it described people who sang or played together in a band, and was often used as a noun for such a musician.^[2] Petronius has symphōniacus as a noun, and an inscription has the native word mūsicārius in the same sense.^[6]

Palladius, Vegetius and the herbal of Pseudo-Apuleius called henbane herba symphōniaca.^[3][5] In Ecclesiastical Latin it could mean “harmonized”,^[7] and in Medieval Latin the noun meant a musician or singer.^[8][4]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of slave musicians as symphōniacī.^[3][4]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it as a noun, “musician”.^[6][4]
• 297–310 AD – Arnobius writes of the symphōniacae artēs, the arts of music.^[3][4]
• end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century AD – Palladius names henbane herba symphōniaca.^[3][4]
• 983–993 – Gerhard of Augsburg uses the noun for a singer or musician.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Singing or playing in a band of musicians; of or belonging to music or concerts.^[2][3]
2. herba symphōniaca: henbane.^[3][5]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Harmonized.^[7]

Noun

1. A musician, a member of a band.^[2][6]
2. (Medieval Latin) A singer or musician.^[8][4]

References

1. ^ a b c 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill