clepsydra Latin · revision 36307

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=81–43 BC, Cicero|origins=grc κλεψύδρα}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈkɫɛp.sy.dra]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈklɛp.si.dra]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''clepsydra''' ''f'' (genitive clepsydrae); first declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|grc|κλεψύδρα|tr=klepsúdra|t=water clock]].^(OLD 2012)^(Saalfeld 1874)^(Wiktionary) The Greek word is made from the stem of [[m|grc|κλέπτω|tr=kléptō|t=to steal, to hide]] and [[m|grc|ὕδωρ|tr=húdōr|t=water]].^(Köbler 2010)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ In Cicero it is the [[m|en|water clock]] that limited the time of speakers: he says of Pericles that no declaimer had taught him to bark at the clepsydra.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It was a vessel with a bottom pierced like a sieve, from which the water fell drop by drop.^(Georges 1913) Pliny the Elder records that Scipio Nasica first brought the water clock to Rome from Greece.^(Georges 1913) In the courts each speaker was given a set number of clepsydrae, so the word also became a measure of time, the time one clock took to empty; in Pliny the Younger and Martial a speaker asks for, or is granted, so many clepsydrae.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ Medieval Latin kept the water clock and added the senses of a [[m|en|spigot]] or tap, and a funnel.^(MLW)^(DMLBS)^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of an orator taught to bark at the clepsydra.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder tells how the water clock came to Rome.^(Georges 1913)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 40–102 AD – Martial uses it for the time measured by one clock.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 807 – The Royal Frankish Annals use it in describing a clock whose hours were measured by water.^(MLW)

+ * Middle Ages – British writers use it also for a spigot or tap.^(DMLBS)

+ * 1640s – Borrowed into English for the ancient water clock.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|water clock]], especially as used to limit the time allowed to speakers in court.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # The time measured by one emptying of such a clock.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' A [[m|en|spigot]], tap or [[m|en|funnel]].^(MLW)^(DMLBS)^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[clepsydrarius]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|clepsydra]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}