tubicen

Forms

tubicen m (genitive tubicinis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin tuba (“trumpet”) + -cen (“player”), the second part from canō (“to sing, play”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan thinks tuba, like tībia (“pipe”), points to a non-Indo-European loanword, and traces canō to Proto-Indo-European *kh₂n-e- (“to sing”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Cato;^[4] Köbler from Varro.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is a trumpeter, mostly in the army: Livy has the horn-blowers and trumpeters ordered to sound, and Ovid and Seneca use it too.^[3][2] Trumpeters also played at sacrifices, and Varro names the tubicen sacrōrum, a priest at the Tubilustrium, the purification of the trumpets;^[2][3] Festus describes them as men of fine appearance who performed rites for purifying the trumpets.^[3] Ateius Capito (in Gellius) and Petronius mention them at funerals.^[3] Stelten glosses it “flute player” in Church Latin.^[6]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato.^[4][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro, of the trumpeter of the rites.^[2][3][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of army trumpeters.^[3][5]
• before 66 AD – Petronius, at a funeral.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A trumpeter, one who plays the tuba, especially in the army; also at funerals.^[2][3][1]
2. tubicen sacrōrum, a priest who performed the rite of purifying the trumpets.^[2][3]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A flute player.^[6]

Word family

• tubicinō

Related words

• tuba
• canō
• cornicen
• tībīcen

References

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