scrinium Latin · revision 33910

+ {{infobox|confidence=unknown|attested=86–34 BC, Sallust}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈskriː.ni.ũː]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈskriː.ni.um]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''scrīnium''' ''n'' (genitive scrīniī or scrīnī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The origin is unknown.^(OLD 2012)^(de Vaan 2008) De Vaan says it could in theory come from a root [[ine-pro|*(s)krei-]], to which Pokorny assigns [[lt|skríeti|t=to rotate, circle, fly]] and [[lt|kreĩvas|t=crooked]], but nothing shows that it must be derived from a root meaning "crooked" or "turn", so one cannot go further.^(de Vaan 2008) Köbler gives the same root,^(Köbler 2010) and Wiktionary also mentions similar container words in Slavic and Germanic.^(Wiktionary) Lewis & Short connected it with [[m|la|scrībō|t=to write]].^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan finds it first in Sallust,^(de Vaan 2008) who in the ''Catiline'' has a praetor ordered to bring the letter-case with the letters he had received from the envoys.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is a case or chest for letters and papers, a writing case, and a box for papyrus rolls in a bookshop or library:^(OLD 2012) Catullus, Horace, Ovid, Juvenal and Martial use it of book-boxes, Seneca of a case of letters.^(Lewis & Short 1879) Lewis & Short note it is not in Cicero.^(Lewis & Short 1879) It is also a case for other things: Pliny the Elder tells of a perfume casket taken among the spoils of Darius.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Under the later emperors the ''scrīnia'' were the offices of the imperial government: of the memorials, of letters, of petitions and of Greek letters.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Niermeyer 1976) In Medieval Latin it is the office of a city council, the papal and royal chanceries, church archives, the royal treasury and a reliquary.^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 86–34 BC – Sallust of a case for letters.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(de Vaan 2008)

+ * 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of book-boxes.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a perfume casket.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A case for letters or papers, a writing case; a box for book rolls.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A box or [[m|en|casket]] for other things.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(Late Latin)'' An office of the imperial government.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Niermeyer 1976)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' A [[m|en|chancery]]; [[m|en|archive|alt=archives]]; a treasury.^(Niermeyer 1976)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' A [[m|en|reliquary]].^(Niermeyer 1976)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[scrīniārius]]

+ * [[scrīniolum]]

+ * [[primiscrinius]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[capsa]]

+ * [[cista]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}