tiara

Forms

tiāra f (genitive tiārae); first declension^[1] Also a masculine tiārās (genitive tiārae).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek τιάρα (tiára), with the masculine form tiārās from τιάρας (tiáras).^[2][3][5] The Greek word is itself a foreign word from the East.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus already has it, in the Persa,^[6][3] for the headdress worn in the East.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed tied to the East: it named a Persian or other Eastern headdress, a cone of felt that could be richly ornamented,^[2] and the tiara Phrygia was a Phrygian bonnet with flaps over the cheeks.^[2][4]

In Christian and medieval Latin it became the name of the papal tiara.^[8][9] English took the word from Latin in the 16th century for the headdress of the Persian kings.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Persa.^[6][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil has the masculine form: sceptrumque sacerque tiaras (“the sceptre and the sacred tiara”).^[3][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it in the Metamorphoses.^[3][6]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca speaks of wearing the tiara upright on the head.^[3][6]
• 1550s – English borrows tiara for the headdress of the Persian kings.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. An Eastern, especially Persian, headdress: a cone of felt, often richly ornamented; a turban.^[2][3]
2. tiara Phrygia: a Phrygian bonnet, with lappets over the cheeks.^[2][4]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin, Medieval Latin) The papal tiara.^[9][8]

Related words

• English tiara

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson