Etymologically
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tricies

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Forms

trīciēs (not comparable)[1] It is also spelled trīciēns.[2][3] Other spellings are tricēsiēs and trīgiēs.[3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin trīgintā (“thirty”) + -iēns, built on an earlier form of the numeral.[2][1][5] Wiktionary traces trīgintā to Proto-Indo-European *tri(d)ḱomt (“thirty”) and compares Ancient Greek τριάκοντα (triákonta, “thirty”) and Sanskrit त्रिंशत् (triṃśát, “thirty”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,[5] who uses triciēns with sesterces understood for three million sesterces in the Verrines and in the Republic.[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

It means thirty times, on thirty occasions, and in multiplication thirty times: Columella reckons thirty times thirty feet as nine hundred.[2][3] With sēstertium or a word for money understood it means three million sesterces, as in Cicero and Martial.[2][3][7] The author of the Bellum Africum writes tricēsiēs, and Martianus Capella trīgiēs.[3][7] In British medieval Latin it is used in compound numerals and of an army thirty times larger, as in Bede.[4]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of three million sesterces.[2][3][5]
  • 1st century AD – Columella multiplies thirty by thirty.[3][5]
  • 40–102/103 AD – Martial of three million sesterces.[3][5]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. Thirty times, on thirty occasions;[2][3][1] (in multiplication) thirty times.[2][3][1]
  2. (with sēstertium or similar understood) Three million sesterces.[2][3][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b 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
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn