The corpus record — Latin

machina

machina · f

a machine

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

Where it lives

De Architectura 56 · 9.71/10k
Panegyricus de tertio consulatu Honorii Augusti 1 · 7.24/10k
Panegyricus de quarto consulatu Honorii Augusti 2 · 5.05/10k
Panegyricus dictus Manlio Theodoro consuli 1 · 4.65/10k
Hamartigenia 2 · 3.13/10k
Carmina 7 · 3.12/10k
De Pallio 1 · 2.92/10k
C. Caligula 2 · 2.62/10k
de Bello Gothico 1 · 2.48/10k
Phoenissae 1 · 2.45/10k
Commentariolum Petitionis 1 · 2.3/10k
Ab urbe condita, books 26-30 - 30 3 · 2.22/10k

Densest 12 of 79 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. māchĭna — Lewis & Short

māchĭna, ae, f. = mhxanh/,

I a machine, i. e. any artificial contrivance for performing work, an engine, fabric, frame, scaffolding, staging, easel, warlike engine, military machine, etc.

I Lit.

A In gen.: moles et machina mundi, Lucr. 5, 96: omnes illae columnae machinā appositā dejectae sunt, Cic. Verr. 2, 1, 55, § 145: torquet nunc lapidem, nunc ingens machina tignum, Hor. Ep. 2, 2, 73: trahuntque siccas machinae carinas, id. C. 1, 4, 2: frumentaria, Dig. 33, 7, 12.—

B Esp.,

1 A platform on which slaves were exposed for sale: amicam de machinis emere, Q. Cic. Petit. Cons. 2, 8.—

2 A painter's easel, Plin. 35, 10, 37, § 120.—

3 A scaffold for building: de machinā cadere, Dig. 13, 6, 5; Plin. 19, 2, 8, § 30.—

4 A military machine, warlike engine: machinis omnium generum expugnare oppidum, Sall. J. 21: aut haec in nostros fabricata est machina muros, Verg. A. 2, 46: murales, Plin. 7, 56, 57, § 202: arietaria, Vitr. 10, 19.—

II Trop., a device, plan, contrivance; esp. a trick, artifice, stratagem: at nunc disturba quas statuisti machinas, i. e. abandon your schemes, Plaut. Ps. 1, 5, 137: totam hanc legem ad illius opes evertendas tamquam machinam comparari, Cic. Agr. 2, 18, 50: omnes ad amplificandam orationem quasi machinae, * Quint. 11, 1, 44: dolum aut machinam commoliar, Caecil. ap. Cic. N. D. 3, 29, 73: quantas moveo machinas! Plaut. Mil. 3, 2, 1: aliquam machinabor machinam, Unde aurum efficiam, id. Bacch. 2, 2, 54.

2. mächina — Walde–Hofmann

mächina, -ae f. „Maschine, Gerüst, Bühne; Kunstgriff, List"; vlt. und rom. auch „Mühlstein, Handmühle* (Pokrowskij IF. 49, 108, Svennung Wortst. 94f,; seit Enn., rom., ebenso mächinula „kleine Maschine“ Paul. Fest., mac(h)inà, -àre ,mahle" Orib. [ebenso re-, Svennung a. O. 116f] und *mächineus „zum Mühlstein gehörig“; vgl. noch mächinälis seit Plin., mächinämentum seit Sisenna [mächinämen Cassiod.], mächinärius seit … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. mächina, p. 910]

In the wild

machinas Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae 24.1.7
machina Statius, Thebais 7.812
machinae Apuleius, Metamorphoses 9.12
machina Columella, Res Rustica, Books I-IX 6.19.3
machinas Augustine, Epistulae. Selections. 10.8
machinam Tertullian, De Scorpiace 1

6 of 251 attestations shown.

Where it came from

Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. machina (scan p. 400; entry #6350).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. mächina (scan p. 910; entry #1648).

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.