Etymologically
Log in

triclinium

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 19 October 2026 at 15:54. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [triːˈkliː.ni.ũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [triˈkliː.ni.um][1]

Forms

trīclīnium n (genitive trīclīniī or trīclīnī); second declension[1] Varro has the spelling tricil-, and inscriptions trichil-.[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek τρικλίνιον (triklínion, “dining room with three couches”),[2][1] from τρεῖς (treîs, “three”) and κλίνη (klínē, “couch”).[3][1] Saalfeld and Köbler give the Greek source as τρίκλινον (tríklinon).[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest example is Naevius, in whom someone asks “where will you dine, here or in the dining room?”[2]

Semantic evolution

It is both the set of couches on three sides of a table, on which diners reclined, and the dining room itself: Varro tells of dining on a raised spot where a triclinium had been set up.[2][5]

Church Latin glosses it “eating couch; parlour, dining room”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 235–200 BC – Naevius of a dining room.[2][3]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro of a set of dining couches.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An arrangement of three couches round a table, for reclining at meals.[2][5][1][6]
  2. A dining room.[2][1][6]

Word family

  • trīclīniāris
  • architrīclīnus
  • trīclīniarchēs

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson