Etymologically
Log in

tentorium

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 19 October 2026 at 22:21. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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

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