rudimentum Latin · revision 33403

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=59 BC–17 AD, Livy|origins=la rudis}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''rudīmentum''' ''n'' (genitive rudīmentī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|rudis#1|-mentum|t1=rough, raw, untrained]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010) De Vaan gives two competing etymologies for [[m|la|rudis#1|alt=rudis]]: a link with [[goh|grioz|t=sand, gravel]] and [[lt|grúdas|t=corn]], which would need a questionable loss of initial /gʰ/ in Latin, and the one most handbooks prefer, from the word for “red”, which Risch derives from [[ine-pro|*h₁rudʰ-i-]]; de Vaan objects that neither the adjective nor [[m|la|rūdus|t=rubble]] shows any trace of a meaning “red”.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler records it first in Livy,^(Köbler 2010) who speaks of the first trial of a boy's reign, ''rudimentum primum puerilis regni''.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Virgil has the hard first lessons of war, ''dura rudimenta belli''.^(Lewis & Short 1879) Lewis & Short note that it is not found before the Augustan age.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It was used most often in the army, of a soldier's first training: Livy has ''rudimentum militare'' and Velleius Paterculus ''rudimenta militiae''.^(Lewis & Short 1879) The phrase ''rudimentum ponere'' or ''rudimenta deponere'' meant to gain one's first experience or to finish one's apprenticeship.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) By metonymy it was the first essay that came out of such lessons, as in Ovid's ''turpe rudimentum'', “a shameful first exploit”.^(OLD 2012) Quintilian speaks of the first rudiments of rhetoric,^(Lewis & Short 1879) Petronius of sketches by Protogenes,^(Lewis & Short 1879) and Suetonius of first steps in public duties.^(Lewis & Short 1879) In Aulus Gellius it is the first beginnings of something that will grow, the beginnings of life.^(OLD 2012) In Medieval Latin it meant a beginning or early stage and also teaching and first lessons.^(DMLBS) English borrowed [[m|en|rudiment]] in the 1540s, from French or directly from Latin.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil, the first lessons of war.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, a first trial and military training.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, “a first exploit”.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian, the first principles of rhetoric.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 165 AD – Aulus Gellius, the beginnings of life.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 639–709 AD – Aldhelm, of first exercises of the mind.^(DMLBS)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1540s – Borrowed into English as [[m|en|rudiment]].^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # First lessons, early [[m|en|training]], [[m|en|apprenticeship]], especially in the army; often plural.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # A first experience or trial;^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) ''rudimentum ponere'', to gain one's first experience.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # A first attempt or essay, the fruit of one's early lessons.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # Plural: the first principles, [[m|en|rudiment|alt=rudiments]] (of an art or study).^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # The first beginnings of something that will develop.^(OLD 2012)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' Teaching, instruction.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[rudis#1]]

+ * [[ērudiō]]

+ * [[en|rudiment]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Lewis & Short compare [[tīrōcinium]], the usual word for a recruit's first service.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}