solium

Latin

Etymology

Believed to be an alteration of Old Latin *sodium, from Proto-Italic *sodjom, from Proto-Indo-European *sodyom (compare Old Irish suide (“seat”)), from *sed-.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈso.li.um/, [ˈs̠ɔlʲiʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈso.li.um/, [ˈsɔːlium]

Noun

solium n (genitive soliī or solī); second declension

1. seat, chair

   Synonyms: sedes, sella

2. throne, chair of state, official seat
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 5.19–20:

     Saepe aliquis soliō, quod tū, Sāturne, tenēbās,
     ausus dē mediā plēbe sedēre deus.

     Often some deity, from amid the common class, dared to sit in the throne which you, Saturn, were occupying.

3. (figuratively) rule, sway, dominion
4. tub, bathtub
5. stone coffin, sarcophagus

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	solium	solia
Genitive	soliī solī1	soliōrum
Dative	soliō	soliīs
Accusative	solium	solia
Ablative	soliō	soliīs
Vocative	solium	solia

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

Derived terms

• archisolium

Descendants

• → Ancient Greek: σόλιον (sólion)
• Italian: soglio
• → Portuguese: sólio
• Sicilian: sogghiu
• → Spanish: solio

References

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