denarius

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dēnārius. Doublet of denar and dinar.

Pronunciation

Noun

denarius (plural denarii or denariuses)

  1. (Ancient Rome, numismatics) A small silver coin issued both during the Roman Republic and during the Roman Empire, equal to 10 asses or 4 sesterces.
    • 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 146:
      "Sorry, I thought you were Aurel. He owes me a denarius. Have you seen him?"
    • 2007, Philip Matyszak, Ancient Rome on 5 Denarii a Day (title of the book)[1]

Usage notes

Translations

References
  1. Its entry at Amazon

Anagrams

Latin

Alternative forms
  • dinārius (spelling found in the Lex Salica)

Etymology

From dēnus (“ten each”) +‎ -ārius.

Pronunciation

Adjective

dēnārius (feminine dēnāria, neuter dēnārium); first/second-declension adjective

  1. Containing or consisting of ten things
  2. tenfold, denary
    • 412 CE – 426 CE, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis, City of God 20.23 :
      Quid sī enim numerō istō dēnāriō ūniversitās rēgum significāta est, post quōs ille ventūrus est; sīcut mīllēnāriō, centēnāriō, septēnāriō significātur plērumque ūniversitās, et aliīs atque aliīs numerīs, quōs nunc commemorāre nōn est necesse?
      What if this 10 were to represent all of the kings—after whom he [the Antichrist] is to come—just as 1000, 100, and 7 (as well as other numbers that don't need to be remembered now) often represent totality?
      (literally, “What if through this tenfold number the totality of the kings is signified, after whom he is to come, just as through the thousandfold, hundredfold, and sevenfold [number] totality is oftentimes signified, and through other and other numbers that is not necessary to remember now?”)

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

Number Singular Plural
Case / Gender Masculine Feminine Neuter Masculine Feminine Neuter
Nominative dēnārius dēnāria dēnārium dēnāriī dēnāriae dēnāria
Genitive dēnāriī dēnāriae dēnāriī dēnāriōrum dēnāriārum dēnāriōrum
Dative dēnāriō dēnāriō dēnāriīs
Accusative dēnārium dēnāriam dēnārium dēnāriōs dēnāriās dēnāria
Ablative dēnāriō dēnāriā dēnāriō dēnāriīs
Vocative dēnārie dēnāria dēnārium dēnāriī dēnāriae dēnāria

Noun

dēnārius m (genitive dēnāriī or dēnārī); second declension

  1. denarius (due to a single coin's value of 10 asses, each made of silver.)

Usage notes

The denarius was always valued at four sesterces. When the denarius was first introduced, the sestertius was valued at 2.5 asses, making a denarius 10 asses. The denarius and sestertius were later revalued to be 16 and 4 asses, respectively, maintaining the ratio of 4 sesterces to each denarius.

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative dēnārius dēnāriī
Genitive dēnāriī
dēnārī1		 dēnāriōrum
Dative dēnāriō dēnāriīs
Accusative dēnārium dēnāriōs
Ablative dēnāriō dēnāriīs
Vocative dēnārie dēnāriī

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

  • 𐆖 (the symbol for the denarius)

Descendants
  • Italo-Romance:
    • Corsican: dinaru
    • Italian: denaro, danaro, danaio
    • Neapolitan: denaro
    • Sicilian: dinaru
  • North Italian:
  • Gallo-Romance:
  • Ibero-Romance:
    • >? Mirandese: denheiro
  • Ancient borrowings:
    • → Ancient Greek: δηνάριον (dēnárion) (see there for further descendants)
    • → Proto-Brythonic: *dinėr (see there for further descendants)

Reflexes of an assumed variant *dīnārius (first vowel influenced by Byzantine Greek δηνάριον /diˈnarion/)[1]

  • North Italian
  • Gallo-Romance:
    • Catalan: diner
    • Gascon: dinèr
    • Occitan: dinièr (Languedoc)
  • Ibero-Romance:

Modern borrowings:

References
  1. Joan Coromines, José A. Pascual (1984) “dinero”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico (in Spanish), volumes II (Ce–F), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 497

Further reading
  • “denarius”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “denarius”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • denarius 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)
  • denarius in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
    • corn had gone up to 50 denarii the bushel: ad denarios L in singulos modios annona pervenerat
  • “denarius”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • “denarius”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
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