tugurium

Forms

tugurium n (genitive tuguriī or tugurī); second declension^[1] Inscriptions have tegurium and tigurium.^[2]

Etymology

Its origin is unclear.^[3] The OLD thinks it perhaps a foreign loanword, but notes that it was associated early with tegō “to cover”, as the jurist Pomponius does.^[4] Lewis & Short derive it from that verb,^[2] and Wiktionary from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg- (“to cover with a roof”), comparing Ancient Greek στέγω (stégō) and Old Irish tech (“house”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short quote it from Afranius and Caecilius, preserved by Festus, and in Varro.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a hut or cottage, the primitive dwelling of shepherds and peasants: Varro, Cicero and Virgil use it, and so do Columella, Pliny the Elder and Valerius Maximus.^[2][4] Church Latin glosses it hut, cabin or cottage.^[5] In Medieval Latin it is the canopy over an altar or a saint's tomb, the same as cibōrium.^[6]

Timeline

• 230/220–168 BC – Caecilius uses the word.^[2][3]
• second half of the 2nd century BC – Afranius uses it.^[2][3]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of a rustic hut.^[2][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses the word.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hut, cottage, shack; any primitive dwelling.^[4][2][1][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) A canopy over an altar or tomb.^[6]

Word family

• tuguriolum

Related words

• tegō

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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill