feretrum

English

Etymology

From Latin feretrum.

Noun

feretrum (plural feretra)

1. A kind of medieval reliquary or shrine containing the sacred effigies and relics of a saint.

Latin

Alternative forms

• pheretrum

Etymology

From Ancient Greek φέρετρον (phéretron), crossed with or analysed as fero +‎ -trum. Doublet of ferculum, which features another variant of the same suffix.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈfe.re.trum/, [ˈfɛrɛt̪rʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfe.re.trum/, [ˈfɛːret̪rum]

Noun

feretrum n (genitive feretrī); second declension

1. funereal litter
2. bier
3. (New Latin) hearse

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	feretrum	feretra
genitive	feretrī	feretrōrum
dative	feretrō	feretrīs
accusative	feretrum	feretra
ablative	feretrō	feretrīs
vocative	feretrum	feretra

Synonyms

• (funereal litter): lectica funebris, lecticula, lectus funebris, capulum

Descendants

• Old French: fiertre (“large portable reliquary”)
  • Middle French: fiertre
  • → Old Irish: fert (“grave”)
  • → Middle Breton: fyertr (“bier”)
  • → Middle Dutch: fiertre (“reliquary”)
• Old Italian: freto, fredo (Old Pavese)
• → Catalan: fèretre
• → Italian: feretro
• → Polish: feretron
• → Portuguese: féretro
• → Spanish: féretro

References

• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “féretrum”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volumes 3: D–F, page 462

Further reading

• “feretrum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “feretrum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• feretrum 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)
• feretrum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “feretrum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “feretrum”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• Patrick M. Owens “Silva (old)”, in Neo-Latin Lexicon‎^[1], Patrick M. Owens