FromAncient Greekσκηνή(skēnḗ). Seemingly with a hypercorrective /ae̯/ < /eː/ in reaction to an opposite trend (cf.haedus,saeta >ēdus,sēta).
scaena f (genitivescaenae);first declension
- stage
29BCE – 19BCE,
Virgil,
Aeneid4.471–472:
- [...] aut Agamemnoniusscēnīs agitātus Orestēs
armātam facibus mātrem et serpentibus ātrīs [...].- [...] or [like] Agamemnon’s [son] Orestes, tormentedonstage [by his dead] mother [who is] armed with torches and black snakes, [...].
(A poetic plural reference to theatrical performances of the tragedy.)
116BCE – 27BCE,
Marcus Terentius Varro,
De lingua Latina 7.96:
- “Obscaenum” dictum ab “scaena”; eam, ut Graeci, Accius scribit “scena”.
- Obscaenum ‘foul’ is said fromscaena ‘stage’; this word Accius writesscena, like the Greeks.
- scene
- theatre
- (transferred) naturalscenery,background,backdrop
29BCE – 19BCE,
Virgil,
Aeneid1.164–165:
- [...] tum silvīsscēna coruscīs
dēsuper; horrentīque ātrum nemus imminet umbrā.- Further on [there is] abackdrop with waving woods above; a dark forest overhanging and trembling with shade.
- publicity, the public eye
- euphemism for death withdēcēdo
First-declension noun.
- “scaena”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879),A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “scaena”, inCharlton T. Lewis (1891),An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- "scaena", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’sGlossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- “scaena”, inGaffiot, Félix (1934),Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- “scaena”, inHarry Thurston Peck, editor (1898),Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “scaena”, inWilliam Smith et al., editor (1890),A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
