trapetus

Pronunciation

• Classical: [traˈpeː.tʊs]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [traˈpɛː.tus]^[1]

Forms

trapētus m (genitive trapētī); second declension^[1] There is also a neuter trapētum.^[2][3] Varro has a Greek plural trapētes.^[4][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek τραπητόν (trapētón, “olive mill”),^[1] a form the OLD gives as τραπητός (trapētós).^[2] The Greek word comes from τραπέω (trapéō, “to tread grapes”).^[4][5][1] Wiktionary and Köbler trace that verb to Proto-Indo-European *trep-.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato uses it first, and many times, in De Agricultura.^[4][3][6]

Semantic evolution

It is a mill for crushing olives before pressing.^[2][3][1] Virgil uses it in the Georgics, and Pliny the Elder uses it too.^[4][3] Columella and Ulpian in the Digest use a neuter trapētum, and Varro a Greek plural trapētes.^[4][3]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato of the olive mill.^[4][3][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of the plural trapētes.^[4][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil in the Georgics.^[4][3]
• 1st century AD – Columella of the neuter trapētum.^[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An olive mill, a mill for crushing olives; an oil press.^[2][3][1][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de