triduum

Forms

trīduum n (genitive trīduī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from tri- (“three”) and a stem ⟨*-duom⟩ from the root of diēs (“day”);^[2][3][4] Wiktionary gives Proto-Italic *trizdiwom.^[1] De Vaan derives ⟨trēs⟩ from Proto-Indo-European *treies (“three”), with ⟨tri-⟩ in compounds, and ⟨diēs⟩ from Proto-Indo-European *di-eu- (“clear sky”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has “three days on end” in the Miles gloriosus, and “let her stay here only these three days” in the Cistellaria;^[3] Köbler also gives Plautus.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It is a period of three days.^[2][3][1] Trīduō is “in three days”, as Cicero's “nobody can walk seven hundred miles in two or at most three days”, and trīduō post or prius three days after or before.^[2] In Celsus it is a series of three set days, the third, fifth and seventh.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “space of three days” and also a three-day devotion;^[6] in Medieval Latin it is a three days' fast.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of three days on end.^[3][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a three days' walk.^[2][4]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus of three set days of treatment.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A period of three days;^[2][3][1][6] trīduō, in three days.^[2]
2. A series of three (set) days.^[2]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A three-day devotion; a three days' fast.^[6][7]

Word family

• trīduānus

Related words

• biduum
• quadrīduum
• trēs
• diēs
• English triduum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill