tentorium

Forms

tentōrium n (genitive tentōriī or tentōrī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin tendō (“to stretch”) + -tōrium, literally something stretched out.^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces tendō to Proto-Italic *tend- and Proto-Indo-European *ten-d(h)- (“to stretch”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and Lewis & Short date it from Hirtius, in the eighth book of the Gallic War.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

It is a shelter of stretched skins or cloth, usually for soldiers, a tent: Virgil, Ovid, Lucan and Suetonius use it.^[2][3] Lewis & Short give tabernāculum as a synonym.^[3] Church Latin glosses it tent, drapery, and Köbler records it in British Medieval Latin in 1289.^[6][5]

Timeline

• c. 50 BC – Hirtius of tents.^[3][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of tents.^[3][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius of tents.^[3][5]
• 1289 – recorded in British Medieval Latin.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tent, a shelter of stretched skins or cloth, usually military.^[2][3][6][1]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A drapery, hanging.^[6]

Word family

• tentōriolum

Related words

• tendō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson