tegumentum

Forms

tegumentum n (genitive tegumentī); second declension^[1] Also tegimentum and tegmentum; the OLD enters it under tegimentum.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin tegō (“to cover”) + -mentum.^[2][1][4] De Vaan traces tegō to Proto-Italic *teg-e/o- (“to cover”) and Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg-e/o- (“to cover”), cognate with Ancient Greek στέγω (stégō, “to keep off, keep in”) and Lithuanian stógas (“roof”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler lists Plautus among its first sources.^[6] The OLD's earliest citations are Cicero, who calls the eyelids the coverings of the eyes, and Caesar, whose soldiers had no time to take the covers off their shields.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is any covering or protection.^[2] Cicero speaks of coverings for the body, woven or sewn,^[3] and of someone making a covering of feathers for the body.^[2] Livy has a sponge worn as protection for the chest, and Curtius horsemen covered with plates of iron linked together.^[2] Pliny the Elder says nature gave other animals various coverings, shells, bark, hides, spines and fleeces.^[2] Seneca says that against heat no covering is solid enough except the earth itself.^[2] English tegument comes from it, first in the mid-15th century.^[4]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of the eyelids as coverings of the eyes.^[2][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar, of the covers of shields.^[2][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of a sponge protecting the chest.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of the shells and hides of animals.^[2][6]
• mid-15th century – Borrowed into English as tegument.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A covering, cover, protection.^[2][3][1]
2. Clothing; armour.^[2][1]
3. The skin, shell or husk of an animal or fruit.^[2][1]

Related words

• integumentum
• tegumen
• tegō
• tegimen
• tēctum
• toga
• English tegument

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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 d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de