xystus

Pronunciation

• Classical: [ˈksys.tʊs]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [ˈksis.tus]^[1]

Forms

xystus m (genitive xystī); second declension^[1] It also occurs as a neuter, xystum.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ξυστός (xustós, “covered colonnade”),^[2][1][4] a covered colonnade in Greek gymnasia, from the adjective ξυστός (xustós, “scraped, smoothed”).^[4] Köbler connects it with Proto-Indo-European *kseu- (“to scratch”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[4] who uses it in his letters to Atticus and in the Brutus and Academica.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Among the Greeks it was a covered portico where athletes exercised in winter;^[2][3] Vitruvius explains the Greek name so.^[2][3] Among the Romans it was an open-air walk, a colonnade or a walk planted with trees, for recreation, conversation and philosophical discussion,^[2][3] in Cicero, Seneca, Pliny the Younger, Suetonius and Phaedrus.^[3] Church Latin has it as a walk planted with trees.^[5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a walk for conversation.^[3][4]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius, of the Greek athletes' covered portico.^[2][3][4]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. An open-air walk, a colonnade or a walk planted with trees.^[2][3][1]
2. A covered portico for athletic exercise.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson