seminarium Latin · revision 33693

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=81–43 BC, Cicero|origins=ine-pro *seh₁-mn}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''sēminārium''' ''n'' (genitive sēmināriī or sēminārī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|sēmen|-ārium|t1=seed|t2=place for]], the neuter of the adjective [[m|la|sēminārius|t=of seed]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Etymonline) De Vaan traces [[m|la|sēmen]] to [[itc-pro|*sēmn]] and [[ine-pro|*seh₁-mn|t=seed]], from the root of [[m|la|serō#1|t=to sow]].^(de Vaan 2008) He compares [[lt|sė́menys|t=linseed]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler dates it from Cicero,^(Köbler 2010) who calls a group ''seminarium Catilinarum'', a nursery of future Catilines.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Its proper sense is a nursery of young trees.^(OLD 2012) Figuratively it is a breeding ground: Varro calls wine a sweet seedbed of merriment, Cicero speaks of a nursery of triumphs, Livy calls the knights the seedbed of the senate, and Apuleius calls a person the source of all evils.^(OLD 2012) In Church Latin it is a seminary, a school for training clergy.^(Stelten 1995) English [[m|en|seminary]] (mid-15th century) first meant a plot where plants are raised from seed; the figurative sense dates from the 1590s and the sense of a school for priests from the 1580s.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro, of wine as a seedbed of merriment.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a nursery of Catilines.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of the knights as the seedbed of the senate.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * mid-15th century – Borrowed into English as [[m|en|seminary]], a seed plot.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1580s – English ''seminary'' as a school for training priests.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|nursery]] of young trees, a seed plot.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Etymonline)

+ # ''(figurative)'' A breeding ground, source.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(Ecclesiastical Latin)'' A [[m|en|seminary]], a school for training clergy.^(Stelten 1995)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[sēmen]]

+ * [[serō#1]]

+ * [[en|seminary]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}