# balteus
## English
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin balteus (“belt, girdle”).

### Noun

balteus (plural baltei)
* (biblical) The girdle of a biblical Jewish priest.
* (Ancient Rome) A swordbelt worn by Roman legionaries.
* (architecture) An Ionic ornamental band encircling the pulvinus, or bolster of the capital.
* (Roman Catholicism) The subcinctorium, a papal garment.

### Anagrams

* ablutes, batules, tabsule, sublate, abustle

## Latin
### Alternative forms

* balteum

### Etymology

Charisius says Varro considered it of Etruscan origin (compare Etruscan 𐌁𐌀𐌋𐌕𐌄𐌀 (baltea, “belt”)). Ernout and Meillet accept its Etruscan origin and interpret -eus as a characteristic ending of Etruscan loanwords, whereas Bonfante Warren is skeptical of this etymology, noting that the voiced consonant /b/ is foreign to Etruscan.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈbal.te.us/, [ˈbäɫ̪t̪eʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈbal.te.us/, [ˈbäl̪t̪eus]

### Noun

balteus m (genitive balteī); second declension
* A belt, girdle
** A sub-cinctorium, a papal garment.
* (architecture) Synonym of praecinctio (curved walkway that separates the galleries of a Roman theatre)

#### Usage notes

* In the Old Testament, Exodus 39:29: A Jewish priest wore a balteus girdle: 3 or 4 fingers in breadth and (according to Rabbinic tradition) 32 ells long; it had to be embroidered after the same pattern and to be of the same colour as the curtain of the forecourt and the tabernacle of the covenant.
* A balteus (sword belt) was worn by the Roman legionary.

#### Declension

Second-declension noun.

#### Descendants

* Aromanian: baltsu
* Italian: balzo
* Old Occitan:
** Catalan: balç
** Occitan: baus
* Old Galician-Portuguese:
** Portuguese: balção, balso
* Romanian: balț
* → Proto-Germanic: *baltijaz (see there for further descendants)
** English: belt
* → Italian: balteo
* → Portuguese: bálteo
* → Spanish: bálteo

### References

* ↑ Ernout, Alfred, Meillet, Antoine (1985) “balteus”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots‎ (in French), 4th edition, with additions and corrections of Jacques André, Paris: Klincksieck, published 2001, page 65
* ↑ Bonfante Warren, Larissa (1973) “Roman Costumes. A Glossary and Some Etruscan Derivations”, in Philosophie und Wissenschaften, Künste, volume 4, page 602

### Further reading

* “balteus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “balteus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* balteus 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)
* balteus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* “balteus”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎
* “balteus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
* “balteus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
* Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “balteus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volumes 1: A–B, page 226