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The corpus record — Latin

cena

cena

meal

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Densest 12 of 114 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. cena — de Vaan

cena 'meal' [f. a] (Carmen Saliare, Naev.+; cesnas Paul, ex F. 2x) Derivatives: cenare 'to have dinner' (Naev.+), cenaticus 'of a dinner' (P1.+), cenatus 'having dined' (P1.+), cenaculum 'top-story, attic' (PL+). Pit *kert(e)sna- 'meal\ It. cognates: O. kersnu [nom.sg.], kerssnais [abl.pl], U. sesna [acc.sg.] 'meal'; O. kerssnasias, kersnaias [nom.pl.f.] 'connected with a meal (?)' < *kersna + -asio-; U. … — [de Vaan, s.v. cena, p. 120]

2. cēna — Lewis & Short

cēna (not coena, caena; old form caesna; cf.

I Casmena for Camena, Fest. p. 205, 15 Müll.), ae, f. Sanscr. khad-, eat; Umbr. çes-na; cf. Gr. kni/zw, the principal meal of the Romans in the early period, taken about midday, dinner, supper (Paul. ex Fest. p. 54, 4; Fest. p. 338, 4 and 368, 8 Müll.); subsequently, the prandium was taken at noon, and the cena was usually begun about the 9th hour, i. e. at 3 o'clock P. M. (v. Dict. of Antiq. s. v. coena; cf.: prandium, jentaculum): cena apud antiquos dicebatur quod nunc est prandium. Vesperna, quam nunc cenam appellamus, Paul. ex Fest. l. l.; Cic. Fam. 9, 26, 1; Mart. 4, 8, 6; Plin. Ep. 3, 1; to begin sooner was an indication of gluttony, Plin. Pan. 49, 6.
(a) With substt.: cenarum ars, Hor. S. 2, 4, 35: caput cenae, Cic. Fin. 2, 8, 25; cf.: mullus cenae caput, Mart. 10, 31, 4: ejus cenae fundus et fundamentum omne erat aula una lentis Aegyptiae, Gell. 17, 8, 1: genus cenae sollemne, viaticum, adventicium, geniale, Philarg. ad Verg. E. 5, 74: honos cenae, Suet. Vesp. 2: inpensae cenarum, Hor. Ep. 1, 19, 38: cenarum magister, Mart. 12, 48, 15: ordo cenae, Petr. 92: cenae pater, Hor. S. 2, 8, 7: o noctes cenaeque deūm! id. ib. 2, 6, 65: mero Pontificum potiore cenis, id. C. 2, 14, 28: Thyestae, id. A. P. 91.—
(b) With adjj.: abundantissima, Suet. Ner. 42: aditialis, Varr. R. R. 3, 6, 6; Sen. Ep. 95, 41: sumptuosa, id. ib. 95, 41: adventicia, Suet. Vit. 13: quorum omnis vigilandi labor in antelucanis cenis expromitur, i. e. lasting all night, Cic. Cat. 2, 10, 22: auguralis, id. Fam. 7, 26, 2: amplior, Juv. 14, 170: bona atque magna, Cat. 13, 3: brevis, Hor. Ep. 1, 14, 35: Cerialis, Plaut. Men. 1, 1, 25: dubia, Ter. Phorm. 2, 2, 28; Hor. S. 2, 2, 77: ebria, Plaut. Cas. 3, 6, 31: grandes, Quint. 10, 1, 58: lautissima, Plin. Ep. 9, 17, 1: libera, open table, Petr. 26: multa de magnā fercula cenā, Hor. S. 2, 6, 104: munda, id. C. 3, 29, 15: cena non minus nitida quam frugi, Plin. Ep. 3, 1, 9: sororia, nuptialis. Plaut. Curc. 5, 2, 60 sq.: Suet. Calig. 25: opimae, Hor. S. 2, 7, 103: popularem quam vocant, Plaut. Trin. 2, 4, 69: prior, i. e. a previous invitation, Hor. Ep. 1, 5, 27: publicae, Suet. Ner. 16: recta, id. Dom. 7; Mart. 2, 69, 7; 7, 19, 2: Saliares, App. M. 4, p. 152, 30: sollemnes, Suet. Tib. 34: subita, Sen. Thyest. 800; Suet. Claud. 21: terrestris, of vegetables, Plaut. Capt. 1, 2, 86: varia, Hor. S. 2, 6, 86: viatica, Plaut. Bacch. 1, 1, 61.—
(g) With verbs: quid ego istius prandia, cenas commemorem? Cic. Verr. 2, 1, 19, § 49; Suet. Vit. 13: cenam apparare, Ter. Heaut. 1, 1, 74: curare, Plaut. Poen. 5, 3, 37: coquere, id. Aul. 2, 7, 3; id. Cas. 3, 6, 28; 4, 1, 8; 4, 2, 2; id. Rud. 4, 7, 38 al.; Nep. Cim. 4, 3: cenas facere, Cic. Att. 9, 13, 6; cf. id. Fam. 9, 24, 2 sq.: anteponere, Plaut. Rud. 2, 6, 25: committere maturo ovo, Varr. ap. Non. p. 249, 8: praebere ternis ferculis, Suet. Aug. 74: ducere, to prolong, Hor. A. P. 376: ministrare, id. S. 1, 6, 116: producere, id. ib. 1, 5, 70: apponere, Ter. Phorm. 2, 2, 28; Suet. Galb. 12: deesse cenae, Quint. 7, 3, 31: instruere pomis et oleribus, Gell. 2, 24 al.: cenam dare alicui, Plaut. Capt. 4, 4, 2; 3, 1, 34; Cic. Fam. 9, 20, 2: cenae adhibere aliquem, Quint. 11, 2, 12; Plin. Ep. 6, 31, 13; Suet. Caes. 73; id. Aug. 74; id. Claud. 32; id. Calig. 25; id. Tit. 9: Taurus accipiebat nos Athenis cenā, Gell. 17, 8, 1: cenam cenavi tuam, Plaut. Rud. 2, 6, 24: obire cenas, Cic. Att. 9, 13, 6: cenam condicere alicui, to engage one's self to any one as a guest, promise to be one's guest, Suet. Tib. 42.—
(d) With prepp.: ante cenam, Cato, R. R. 114; 115, 1: inter cenam, at table, Cic. Q. Fr. 3, 1, 6, § 19; id. Fragm. ap. Quint. 9, 3, 58; id. Phil. 2, 25, 63; Quint. 6, 3, 10; Suet. Galb. 22; id. Aug. 71; in this sense in Suet. several times: super cenam, Suet. Aug. 77; id. Tib. 56; id. Ner. 42; id. Vit. 12; id. Vesp. 22; id. Tit. 8; id. Dom. 21: post cenam, Quint. 1, 10, 19.—(e) With substt. and prepp.: aliquem Abduxi ad cenam, Ter. Heaut. 1, 2, 9; Cic. Tusc. 5, 32, 91: aliquem ad cenam aliquo condicam foras, Plaut. Men. 1, 2, 18; id. Stich. 3, 1, 38: holera et pisciculos ferre in cenam seni, Ter. And. 2, 2, 32: fit aliquid in cenam, is preparing, Val. Max. 8, 1, 8: ire ad cenam, Ter. Eun. 3, 2, 6: venire ad cenam, Cic. Q. Fr. 3, 1, 6, § 19; Hor. Ep. 1, 7, 61: itare ad cenas, Cic. Fam. 9, 24, 2: invitare ad cenam, id. ib. 7, 9, 3; Quint. 7, 3, 33; Suet. Claud. 4: venire ad cenam, Cic. Fin. 2, 8, 25: promittere ad cenam, Plin. Ep. 1, 15, 1: vocare ad cenam, Cic. Att. 6, 3, 9; Hor. S. 2, 7, 30; Suet. Tib. 6: devocare, Nep. Cim. 4, 3: redire a cenā, Cic. Rosc. Am. 35, 98. —Prov.: cenā comesā venire, i. e. to come too late: post festum, Varr. R. R. 1, 2, 11: cenam rapere de rogo, of unscrupulous greed, Cat. 59, 3.—
II Meton.
A A dish, course, at dinner: prima, altera, tertia, Mart. 11, 31, 5 and 6.—*
B A company at table: ingens cena sedet, Juv. 2, 120.—*
C The place of an entertainment (cf. cenatio and cenaculum), Plin. 12, 1, 5, § 11.

Where it came from

  • de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. cena (scan p. 120; entry #247).
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. céna (scan p. 136; entry #2009).

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.