cista Latin · revision 7684
16 Oct 2026, 14:18 by bogdan “New Latin entry (sources: de Vaan, OLD, Lewis & Short, TLL...)” current version
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+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=Rhetorica ad Herennium|origins=grc κίστη}}
+
+ ==Pronunciation==
+ * IPA (Classical): [ˈkɪs.ta]^(Wiktionary)
+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈt͡ʃis.ta]^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Forms==
+ '''cista''' ''f'' (genitive cistae); first declension^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Etymology==
+ It is [[bor|grc|κίστη|tr=kístē|t=box, basket]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(TLL)^(Etymonline) Köbler compares [[ine-pro|*kistā|t=wicker basket]], and the TLL reports Stokes' comparison of [[sga|cess|t=basket]].^(Köbler 2010)^(TLL)
+
+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==
+ The OLD's earliest citation is from the ''Rhetorica ad Herennium'', of a ballot box.^(OLD 2012) Köbler dates it 86/82 BC.^(Köbler 2010)
+
+ ==Semantic evolution==
+ It meant a box or chest, usually of wickerwork, for money, clothes, books or fruit, as in Cicero, Horace and Pliny the Elder.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Gaffiot 2016) In Catullus and Tibullus it held the sacred objects of mysteries, and in the ''Rhetorica ad Herennium'' it was a ballot box.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016)
+
+ British Medieval Latin used it for a chest, a bookcase and a coffin.^(DMLBS) It survives in Italian and Spanish ''cesta'', and it was borrowed early into Germanic as ''*kista'', whence Old English ''cest'' and [[en|chest]].^(Wiktionary)^(Etymonline) [[en|cist]] is an archaeological term from 1804.^(Etymonline)
+
+ ==Timeline==
+ * 86/82 BC – The ''Rhetorica ad Herennium'' uses it of a ballot box.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a chest.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of a box for sacred objects.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 1804 – English ''cist'' is recorded.^(Etymonline)
+
+ ==Meanings==
+ ===Noun===
+ # A box, [[m|en|chest]], basket.^(OLD 2012)
+ # A box for sacred objects.^(OLD 2012)
+ # A ballot box.^(OLD 2012)
+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' A coffin; a bookcase.^(DMLBS)
+
+ ==Word family==
+ * [[cistārius]]
+ * [[cistella]]
+ * [[cistifer]]
+ * [[cistula]]
+
+ ==Related words==
+ * [[en|chest]]
+ * [[en|cist]]
+
+ ==References==
+ {{reflist}}