vestiarium

Forms

vestiārium n (genitive vestiāriī or vestiārī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is the neuter of the adjective vestiārius (“of clothes”) used as a noun,^[2][3] which is formed from Latin vestis (“clothing”) + -ārius.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Seneca uses it for a clothing allowance: a household of slaves asks for clothes and food (vestiarium victumque).^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was a chest or cupboard for clothes, which Pliny the Elder recommends sprinkling with olive lees against woodworm,^[2][3] an allowance in money or kind for clothing,^[2] and clothes in general.^[3]

In medieval monasteries it was the room where the monks' clothes were kept, the office of looking after them, and the estates whose revenue went to it; it also meant clothes, the festal vestments of a bishop, a vestry or treasury for church ornaments, and archives.^[5] Ecclesiastical Latin used it for the sacristy.^[6]

Timeline

• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it for a clothing allowance.^[2][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for clothes-chests.^[2][3][4]
• 1st century AD – Columella names it among the provisions due to slaves.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wardrobe, chest or cupboard for keeping clothes.^[2][3]
2. An allowance in money or kind for clothing.^[2]
3. Clothes, articles of clothing.^[3][5]
4. (Medieval Latin) The room in a monastery where the monks' clothes were kept; the office of caring for them.^[5]
5. (Medieval Latin) The estates whose revenue went to the monastery's vestiarium.^[5]
6. (Medieval Latin) The festal vestments of a bishop.^[5]
7. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A vestry, sacristy; a treasury for church ornaments.^[6][5]
8. (Medieval Latin) Archives.^[5]

References

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