toreuma

Forms

toreuma n (genitive toreumatis); third declension^[1] The genitive plural is toreumatum or toreumatōrum, according to Charisius, and Apuleius has the dative plural toreumatibus.^[2][3] A feminine toreuma, -ae appears in Aethicus.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek τόρευμα (tóreuma, “work in relief”).^{[4][3][5][1][6]}

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero's Verrines,^[6][3][7] of articles of embossed work.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

Cicero also uses it in the speech against Piso, and Sallust and Martial have it;^[3] Martial and Suetonius use the singular collectively for embossed plate.^[4][7] Georges gives vās caelātum as the native Latin equivalent.^[2]

Medieval Latin applied it to a couch or pillow, a curtain and a cupboard.^[8] In Britain it meant a bed, perhaps by association with torus, and glossaries render it as a king's bed; it was also glossed as a turned vessel and the shavings from a lathe, and in 1552 it is used of carving in relief on an altar.^[9]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of embossed articles.^[3][6]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it.^[3][7][6]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it of embossed plate.^[3][7][6]
• c. 768 – Aethicus has a feminine form.^[2][6]
• 1552 – A Scottish text uses it of carving in relief.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. An article decorated in relief; collectively, embossed work.^[4][3][2]
2. (Medieval Latin) A couch or pillow; a bed.^[8][9]
3. (Medieval Latin) A curtain; a cupboard.^[8]
4. (Medieval Latin) A turned vessel; shavings from a lathe.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
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 d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b c d Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press