taeda

Forms

taeda f (genitive taedae); first declension^[1] It is also spelled tēda.^[2][3][4] Lucretius has an old genitive taedāī.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek δᾴς (dáis, “torch, pinewood”), taken from its accusative δᾷδα (dâida).^[2][1][5] Köbler says it came through Etruscan, and Wiktionary that the intermediary is unknown.^[5][1] Lewis and Short call the origin doubtful and compare taedet (“it wearies”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Ennius as its first author,^[5] who has “with burning torches”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is resinous pinewood, especially for fires and torches, as Caesar's casks filled with pinewood and pitch, and Pliny the Elder says the lowest parts of the fir are called taedae;^[2][3] Celsus uses it of pine resin.^[2][3] It is a pine torch, as in Ennius, and the torch carried at a wedding, as Catullus' wedding torches of Thetis, so that in poetry it stands for marriage itself.^[2][3][1] It is also the pine tree, as in Horace, a board of pinewood, and a small piece of pork fat for a burnt offering.^[2][1][4]

Church Latin glosses it “torch, pine tree, board of pine”.^[4]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius of burning torches.^[2][5]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of wedding torches.^[2][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of pinewood.^[2][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of a pine tree.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Resinous pinewood; pine resin; a board of pinewood.^[2][3][1][4]
2. A pine torch; a wedding torch;^[2][3][1][4] (poetic) marriage.^[2][3][1][4]
3. A pine tree.^[2][4]
4. A small piece of pork fat for a burnt offering.^[1]

Word family

• taedifer

Related words

• fax
• fūnāle
• pīnus
• pīx

Usage notes

Döderlein gives fax as the general word for any torch, taeda a natural torch of pinewood, and fūnāle a made torch of wax.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper