mortarium

English

Etymology

From Latin mortārium. Doublet of mortar.

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /mɔːˈtɛːɹɪəm/

Noun

mortarium (plural mortaria)

(archaeology) A kind of mortar used by ancient Romans for grinding.

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *mer(H)- (“to rub”). Perhaps cognate with murcus, murcidus, marceō, morbus, Ancient Greek μαραίνω (maraínō), μαρασμός (marasmós), μάρναμαι (márnamai), μάρμαρος (mármaros).

Pronunciation

(Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [mɔrˈtaː.ri.ũː]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [morˈt̪aː.ri.um]

Noun

mortārium n (genitive mortāriī or mortārī); second declension

mortar (used with a pestle)
1. large basin in which mortar (substance) is made
mortar (mixture of lime, sand, and water)

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	mortārium	mortāria
genitive	mortāriī mortārī¹	mortāriōrum
dative	mortāriō	mortāriīs
accusative	mortārium	mortāria
ablative	mortāriō	mortāriīs
vocative	mortārium	mortāria

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Descendants

Asturian: morteru
Catalan: morter
Friulian: mortâr
Galician: morteiro
Italian: mortaio
Occitan: mortièr
Old French: mortier
- Middle French: mortier
  - French: mortier
  - → Middle Dutch: mortier
    - Dutch: mortier (see there for further descendants)
- → Middle English: morter (partially)
  - English: mortar (see there for further descendants)
  - Scots: mortar
  - → Welsh: morter, mortar
Portuguese: morteiro
Romanian: mortar, mortier
Sardinian: martaju, moltàgiu, murtàgliu, murtarju
Sicilian: murtaru
Spanish: mortero
Venetan: mortèr
→ Proto-West Germanic: *mortārī (see there for further descendants)

References

“mortarium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“mortarium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
"mortarium", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
mortarium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
“mortarium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
mortarium in Ramminger, Johann (16 July 2016 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
“mortarium”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin