mortarium

English

Etymology

From Latin mortārium. Doublet of mortar.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /mɔːˈtɛːɹɪəm/

Noun

mortarium (plural mortaria)

1. (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): /morˈtaː.ri.um/, [mɔrˈt̪äːriʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /morˈta.ri.um/, [morˈt̪äːrium]

Noun

mortārium n (genitive mortāriī or mortārī); second declension

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

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	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
• Venetian: 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 (2016 July 16 (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