cestrum

See also: cèstrum

Latin

Alternative forms

• cestros
• cestron

Etymology

Uncertain.

• Possibly borrowed from Ancient Greek κέστρον (késtron)^[1] or κέστρος (késtros, “sharpness”), from the root of the verb κεντέω (kentéō, “to prick, sting, stab”).
• Alternatively, from caed- (“to cut”) +‎ -trum,^[1] from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂id-, *kh₂eyd- (“to cut, hew”) + *-trom (“instrumental suffix”), related to Latin caelō (“carve”), caelum (“chisel”).

Pronunciation

(Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkes.trum/, [ˈkɛs̠t̪rʊ̃ˑ]

• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃes.trum/, [ˈt͡ʃɛst̪rum]

Noun

cestrum n (genitive cestrī); second declension

1. some tool used in encaustic painting on ivory
   • 23 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Natural History 35.147, (The artist's name here is sometimes alternatively read Lala or Laia):

     Iaia Cyzicena, perpetua virgo, M. Varronis iuventa, Romae et penicillo pinxit et cestro in ebore imagines mulierum maxime et Neapoli anum in grandi tabula, suam quoque imaginem ad speculum.

     At Rome during the youth of Marcus Varro, Iaia of Cyzicus, who never married, made portraits both with a paintbrush and with a cestrum in ivory, mostly of women, and a large painted panel of an old woman at Naples, also a portrait of herself made with a mirror.

   • 23 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Natural History 35.149:

     encausto pingendi duo fuere antiquitus genera cera et in ebore cestro id est v<e>riculo donec classes pingi coepere hoc tertium accessit resolutis igni ceris penicillo utendi quae pictura navibus nec sole nec sale ventisve corrumpitur

     Anciently there were two types of encaustic painting, with wax and in ivory with a cestrum (that is a small skewer/spit) until fleets started to be painted. This added a third type, using a brush with waxes melted by fire: this method of painting ships is not ruined by sun nor by salt or winds.

Usage notes

Pliny describes the cestrum as a tool used in encaustic painting (in both cases specifying ivory as the substrate) but its precise form and function are not clear from his description. The explanatory gloss "id est v<e>riculo" (manuscript "viriculo") is typically understood as implying it was some kind of pointed tool similar to a spit (verū). Modern scholars have proposed various hypotheses: some suppose that it was a pointed tool used to cut or engrave colored wax, others that it was a spatula-like or toothed tool used to apply wax.^[1] It is sometimes assumed that it was made of metal and heated.

The noun is used in both cases in the ablative singular, so the gender and the form of the nominative are not certain:^[2] it could be either masculine or neuter, and could have had a Greek-type second-declension nominative singular ending (e.g. cestros and cestron are equally possible).

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	cestrum	cestra
Genitive	cestrī	cestrōrum
Dative	cestrō	cestrīs
Accusative	cestrum	cestra
Ablative	cestrō	cestrīs
Vocative	cestrum	cestra

Related terms

• cestrōtus

Descendants

• Translingual: Cestrum

References

1. “pictura”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
2. Berger, Ernst (1904) Die Maltechnik des Altertums: nach den quellen, funden, chemischen analysen, page 196

Further reading

• “cestrum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cestrum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers