camīnāta

Meaning

1. Late Latinroom with a chimney, living room, parlour
2. EarlyMedieval Latinbedroom
3. EarlyMedieval Latinchimney

Declension

Origins

Ellipsis of *[camera camīnāta], that is camera (“chamber”) and camīnus (“fireplace”) + -āta (“provided with”). First attested in 584 CE in sense 1 and the ninth century in sense 3, which developed in northern France to fill the semantic space vacated by camīnus ("fireplace", later "chimney"), the latter having been locally discarded after it became a homophone for cammīnus (“path, way”) due to ongoing consonant degemination. The French descendant of camīnāta, namely cheminee, made its way into numerous other languages as chimney-making techniques spread from northern France.

In English words that came into English from camīnāta

• chimneycamīnāta