Etymologically
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trabs

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈtraps][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈtrabs][1]

Forms

trabs f (genitive trabis); third declension[1] Ennius and Varro have the nominative trabēs.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *trab- (“wooden beam”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *trb- (“wooden beam”).[2][1] Sabellic has a stem *trēb- “house”, as Oscan trííbúm (“house”), and Umbrian a verb “to build”, but it is uncertain whether they formed one paradigm with the Latin word.[2][3] Wiktionary compares Lithuanian troba (“building”) and English thorp.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it.[2] Ennius has trabēs of a felled fir in a tragedy.[3]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was a tree trunk, a log for burning, and a beam or balk in building, as Caesar's beams.[3][4] By metonymy it was a ship, as Ennius' beaked ship and Catullus' swimming timber.[3] Döderlein says it is a long narrow beam like a pole, against tignum, a short thick one.[5]

It survives as Italian trave and Spanish traba.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[2][6]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of a ship.[3][6]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of beams.[4][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A tree trunk; a log.[3][1]
  2. A beam, timber, rafter.[3][7]
  3. (poetic) A ship.[3]

Word family

  • trabāria
  • trabea
  • trabēcula
  • trabica
  • tignum

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  5. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press