harena

Latin

Alternative forms

• arēna

Etymology

From Old Latin hasēna, possibly from Etruscan; compare Sabine fasēna, Etruscan 𐌚𐌀𐌑𐌄𐌍𐌀 (faśena, “sand; ashes; human remains”).

Otherwise, as De Vaan suggests, it might be from a verb suffixed with *-es-no-, but none fits and so the etymology is unknown.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [haˈreː.na]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [aˈrɛː.na]

Noun

harēna f (genitive harēnae); first declension

1. sand

   Synonyms: sabulō, sabulum, saburra

   Near-synonym: glārea

   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Vergilius, Aeneis 1.106–107:

     Hī summō in flūctū pendent; hīs unda dēhīscēns
     terram inter flūctūs aperit; furit aestus harēnīs.

     Some [sailors] hang on a wave crest; for others the sea is gaping [and] the sea-bed is revealed between the waves; the surge churns with sand.
     (The ablative plural “harenis” is often translated here as singular. The description of the sailors’ experiences in the storm exemplifies hyperbole.)

2. (poetic) slime; mud

   Synonym: līmus

   • 29, Virgil, Georgica, book IV, ed. by John E. Sheridan, London: Machen, published 1856, page 71, lines 287–294, notes from page 218:

     Nam qua Pellaei gens fortunata Canopi/ Accolit effuso stagnantem flumine Nilum/ Et circum pictis vehitur sua rura phaselis,/ Quaque pharetratae vicinia Persidis urget,/ [Et viridem Aegyptum nigrá fecundat arená,/ Et diversa ruens septem discurrit in ora/ Usque coloratis amnis devexus ab Indis,]/ Omnis in hac certam regio jacit arte salutem.

     For where the fortunate people of the Pellaean Canopus dwell close by the Nile, that swells into a lake with its inundating stream, and are carried round their farms in painted barges; and where the vicinity of the quiver-armed Parthia is contiguous, and the river rolling down all the way from the swarthy Indians separates, as it rushes along, into seven different branches, and fertilizes the verdant Egypt with its black slime; the entire region places implicit confidence in this art.

3. (metonymic) the sand; sands; a sandy place:
   1. sandy desert or wastes
   2. beach; strand; coastland (at the seashore)
   3. the place of combat in the amphitheatre (strewn with sand): the arena
   4. (transferred sense):
      1. combat in the amphitheatre
      2. the combatants in the arena
   5. (figurative) the arena (the realm in which a dispute unfolds)

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	harēna	harēnae
genitive	harēnae	harēnārum
dative	harēnae	harēnīs
accusative	harēnam	harēnās
ablative	harēnā	harēnīs
vocative	harēna	harēnae

Derived terms

• harēna ūrēns, arēna ūrēns
• harēnāceus, arēnāceus
• harēnāria, arēnāria
• harēnārium, arēnārium
• harēnārius, arēnārius
• harēnātio, arēnātio
• harēnātum, arēnātum
• harēnātus, arēnātus
• harēnifodīna, arēnifodīna
• harēnivagus, arēnivagus
• harēnōsum, arēnōsum
• harēnōsus, arēnōsus
• harēnula, arēnula

References

• “harena”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “harena”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "harena", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “harena”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “harena”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 279