Latin

Noun

monastērium n ‎(genitive monastēriī); second declension

1. (Medieval Latin) monastery
   • c. 731 CE, Bede, Historia ecclesiastica 2.1

     Nam mutato repente habitu saeculari monasterium petiit, in quo tanta perfectionis gratia coepit conuersari, ut, sicut ipse postea flendo solebat adtestari, animo illius labentia cuncta subteressent, ut rebus omnibus, quae uoluuntur, emineret, ut nulla nisi caelestia cogitare soleret, ut etiam retentus corpore ipsa iam carnis claustra contemplatione transiret, ut mortem quoque, quae pene cunctis poena est, uidelicet ut ingressum uitae, et laboris sui praemium amaret.

     For soon quitting his secular habit, he repaired to a monastery, wherein he began to behave himself with so much grace of perfection that (as he was afterwards wont with tears to testify) his mind was above all transitory things; that he despised all that is subject to change; that he used to think of nothing but what was heavenly; that whilst detained by the body, he by contemplation broke through the bonds of flesh; and that he loved death, which is a terror to almost all men, as the entrance into life, and the reward of his labours.

2. (Medieval Latin) cell; area used by a monk.

Inflection

Second declension.

Synonyms

• (monastery): monachīum
• (cell): monachīum

Related terms

Descendants

References

• monasterium in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “monasterium”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.