barathrum Latin · revision 33267

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

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈba.ra.tʰrũː]^(Wiktionary)

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

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''barathrum''' ''n'' (genitive barathrī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|grc|βάραθρον|tr=bárathron|t=gulf, pit]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary) Köbler connects the Greek word with [[ine-pro|*gʷer-|t=to swallow]].^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The TLL dates it from Plautus,^(TLL) in whom someone in despair cries “o abyss, where are you now?”^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is a pit, chasm or abyss:^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Virgil has the deepest whirlpool of an abyss, and Lucretius and Catullus also use it.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) It is especially the underworld, the pit.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Plautus applies it humorously to a drinker's gullet: “quickly pour this into the abyss”.^(OLD 2012) The TLL finds it rare in early prose but very common in the poets from Virgil on, often at the end of the hexameter.^(TLL) Döderlein calls it a poetic word of foreign origin for an abyss in water, beside [[vorāgō]].^(Döderlein 1874) Church Latin has it as the lower world, bottomless pit, abyss.^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of the abyss and of a gullet.^(OLD 2012)^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 96–55 BC – Lucretius.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil, of an abyss in the sea.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A pit, [[m|en|chasm]], [[m|en|abyss]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # The [[m|en|underworld]], hell.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # ''(humorous)'' The gullet, belly.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[vorāgō]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}