balneum Latin · revision 31382

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=grc βαλανεῖον}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈbaɫ.ne.ũː]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈbal.ne.um]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''balneum''' ''n'' (genitive balneī); variously declined, second declension, first declension^(Wiktionary)

+ The older form ''balineum'' is the usual one in Plautus and in prose after Augustus.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ The plural is usually feminine, ''balneae'', but since the Augustan period also neuter, ''balnea''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(OLD 2012)

+ Petronius and inscriptions have a masculine ''balneus''.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|grc|βαλανεῖον|tr=balaneîon|t=bath, bathing room]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Saalfeld 1874) Wiktionary notes that it was borrowed early enough for the second ⟨a⟩ to be weakened to ⟨i⟩, giving ⟨balineum⟩, and then lost by syncope.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Plautus has “the baths will never take this weariness from me” in the ''Mercator''.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is a bathing room or bathroom, and in the plural a suite of baths or a public bathing establishment;^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Varro holds that the singular was used for a private bath and the plural for public ones, though later writers do not keep to this.^(Lewis & Short 1879) It is also the bath itself, the tub for the water, as Seneca's people who drink among the naked almost on the threshold of the bath, and with reference to heating, as Cicero's “I will have the bath heated”.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) It is also the act of bathing, as in Plautus.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ Church Latin glosses it “bath”.^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of bathing.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro on singular and plural.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero of heating a bath.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * before 66 AD – Petronius has ''balneus''.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|bathroom]];^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary) ''(plural)'' baths, a public bathing establishment.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # A [[m|en|bath]], tub.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # The act of bathing, a bath.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[balneāris]]

+ * [[balneārius]]

+ * [[balneaticum]]

+ * [[balneō]]

+ * [[balneolum]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[balneātor]]

+ * [[thermae]]

+ * [[lavō]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}