mortarium Latin · revision 32957

+ {{infobox|confidence=uncertain|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [mɔrˈtaː.ri.ũː]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [morˈtaː.ri.um]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''mortārium''' ''n'' (genitive mortāriī or mortārī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ Its origin is uncertain.^(Wiktionary) The OLD thinks it perhaps related to [[sa|मृणाति|tr=mr̥ṇāti|t=crushes]] and [[grc|μαραίνω|tr=maraínō|t=to quench, destroy]].^(OLD 2012) De Vaan suggests a noun [[itc-pro|*morto-|t=ground]] from [[ine-pro|*mr̥-to-|t=crushed]], from the root of [[morior]] “to die”, with the extension seen in words meaning to destroy or crush.^(de Vaan 2008) Köbler cites Pokorny's [[ine-pro|*mr̥tós|t=ground, crushed]].^(Köbler 2010) Isidore of Seville explained it as the vessel where seeds, ground to powder and so dead, are stored.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010) and Cato uses it too.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is a bowl or trough in which things are pounded, a mortar, mostly before the classical period and after Augustus;^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Nonius defines it as the vessel in which things to be dissolved are ground.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Pliny the Elder has mortars of bronze and of lead.^(Lewis & Short 1879) Transferred, it is the large basin in which builders' mortar is mixed, as in Vitruvius, and then the mortar itself.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary) In Medieval Latin it is also a mortar, and a small lamp or cresset.^(Niermeyer 1976) English ''mortar'' for building, from the mid-13th century, comes from Old French ''mortier'' and directly from this word, which Etymonline thinks the same as the word for the bowl.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses the word.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 234–149 BC – Cato uses the word.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of a trough for builders' mortar.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * mid-13th century – English ''mortar'' for building.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A bowl or trough in which things are pounded, a [[m|en|mortar]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)^(Niermeyer 1976)

+ # A basin in which builders' mortar is mixed; mortar of lime, sand and water.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' A small lamp, [[m|en|cresset]].^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[mortariolum]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|mortar]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}