sceptrum Latin · revision 30895

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=81–43 BC, Cicero|origins=grc σκῆπτρον}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈskeːp.trũː]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈʃɛp.trum]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''scēptrum''' ''n'' (genitive scēptrī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+ Varro cites a spelling ''scaeptrum''.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|grc|σκῆπτρον|tr=skêptron|t=staff, sceptre]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Etymonline) The Greek noun comes from [[m|grc|σκήπτω|tr=skḗptō|t=to prop, lean on]] with the instrument suffix ⟨-τρον⟩.^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler's first source is Cicero.^(Köbler 2010) In the ''Pro Sestio'' King Ptolemy sits with his purple, his sceptre and his royal insignia.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is a royal staff or sceptre, and Juvenal uses it of the ivory staff carried by a general in triumph; a Priapic poem uses it obscenely of the phallus.^(OLD 2012) By metonymy it is the power the sceptre stands for, kingship: an old tragedy has “I rule in Argos, Pelops left me the sceptre”.^(OLD 2012) Pliny the Elder gives it as a name for the shrub aspalathus.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ Church Latin glosses it “sceptre, royal staff, symbol of authority”.^(Stelten 1995) English ''sceptre'' (c. 1300) comes from it, in part through Old French.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero of a king's sceptre.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a shrub.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal of a general's staff.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 1300 – English [[m|en|sceptre]].^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A royal staff, [[m|en|sceptre]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # ''(by metonymy)'' Royal power, [[m|en|sovereignty]], kingship.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A name of the shrub [[m|en|aspalathus]].^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[scēptrifer]]

+ * [[scēptriger]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|sceptre]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}