aratrum

Latin[edit]

From Proto-Italic *arātrom, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂érh₃trom (with long ā by analogy to the related verb arō, arāre; the expected outcome would otherwise be *arĕtrum).

Equivalent to arō (“to plough”) +‎ -trum. Cognate with Ancient Greek ἄροτρον (árotron, “plow”), Old Armenian արաւր (arawr, “plow”), Welsh aradr.

arātrum n (genitive arātrī); second declension

plough or plow (a device pulled through the ground in order to break it open into furrows for planting)
- 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 5.497:
  tempus erat quō versa iugō referuntur arātra
  It was the hour when [up]turned plows are being brought back by yoked [oxen]
  (“versa arātra”: i.e., plows somehow turned so that the plowshares are not in contact with the soil. See: Plough.)

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