lavatorium

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin lavātōrium. Doublet of lavatory.

Noun

lavatorium (plural lavatoriums or lavatoria)

1. (architecture) The communal washing area in a monastery.

Latin

Etymology

lavō (“wash”) +‎ -tōrium.

Noun

lavātōrium n (genitive lavātōriī or lavātōrī); second declension

1. (architecture, Late Latin, Medieval Latin) A washroom or place, particularly a lavatorium.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	lavātōrium	lavātōria
Genitive	lavātōriī lavātōrī1	lavātōriōrum
Dative	lavātōriō	lavātōriīs
Accusative	lavātōrium	lavātōria
Ablative	lavātōriō	lavātōriīs
Vocative	lavātōrium	lavātōria

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

Descendants

• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: lavatoio
• Padanian:
  • Lombard: laader
  • Piedmontese: lavaor, lavòur, lavor, laor, laver
• Northern Gallo-Romance:
  • French: lavoir
• Southern Gallo-Romance:
  • Aragonese: lavador
  • Catalan: llavador
  • Occitan: lavador

    Gascon: lavader

• Ibero-Romance:
  • Galician: lavadoiro
  • Portuguese: lavadouro, lavadoiro (older form)
  • Spanish: lavadero
• Borrowings:
  • → English: lavatorium, lavatory
  • → French: lavatoire
  • → Portuguese: lavatório
  • → Romanian: lavator
  • → Spanish: lavatorio

References

• “lavatorium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• lavatorium 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)