urna

Forms

urna f (genitive urnae); first declension^[1] An inscription has orna.^[2]

Etymology

It probably stands for ⟨*urc-na⟩, with the cluster simplified, and belongs with urceus (“pitcher”) and Ancient Greek ὕρχη (húrkhē, “jar”).^[2][1] According to Wiktionary, Ernout and Meillet see these and orca (“jar”) as connected through borrowing.^[1] Lewis and Short's derivation from ūrō (“to burn”), as a vessel of baked clay, is older.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Plautus as its first author,^[4] as the Pseudolus: “you who have the pitcher, pour in water”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a narrow-necked vessel for water, a pitcher, and the attribute of river gods, as Virgil's father Inachus pouring his river from an urn, and of the constellation Aquarius.^[2] It was used for drawing lots, as in the Verrines, where three judges are drawn from the urn, as a voting urn, and as a cinerary urn for the ashes of the dead, as in Propertius.^[2][3] As a liquid measure it is half an amphora, about 13 litres, as in Cato.^[2][1]

Varro, as Lewis and Short report, explained it from ūrīnor “to dive”, because it dives when drawing water.^[3] Church Latin glosses it “urn, pitcher, water jar”, and in medieval Latin it is also a sarcophagus.^[5][6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a water pitcher.^[2][4]
• 234–149 BC – Cato of a liquid measure.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of drawing lots.^[2][4]
• 57/46–12 BC – Propertius of a cinerary urn.^[2][4]
• late 14th century – Borrowed into English as urn.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pitcher, water jar, urn.^[2][1][5]
2. An urn for drawing lots; a voting urn; a cinerary urn.^[2][1]
3. A liquid measure, half an amphora.^[2][1]
4. (Medieval Latin) A sarcophagus.^[6]

Word family

• urnālis
• urnārium
• urniger
• urnula

Related words

• urceus
• amphora
• English urn

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c 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. ^ 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
7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com