English → Latin
“curtain” in Latin
vēluma cloth, covering, curtain, veil, awning; the sail of a ship; the soft palateplagulasheet of cloth or paper; bed-curtain; a slight stroke or blowaulaeumcanopy, covering; curtain (in a theatre); hangings, drapes, draperymittōto send, dispatch, cause to go, let go, release, discharge; to put out, extend, reach out (one's hand); to announce, telobiūrgātiōchiding, reproving, reproof, rebuke, reprehension
The English word curtain itself goes back to Latin cōrtīna.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
curtain s.
velum (general term for any piece of cloth or stuff, that is hung or spread before anything; e.g., bed-curtain, curtain before a door): plagula (curtain spread over a bed, a sedan-chair, etc.): aulaeum (ἡ αὐλαία, a splendidly wrought curtain, especially to draw before or to spread over a bed, e.g., lectus aulaeis obductus [after Curt. 8, 5, 21] then = curtain before the stage in the theatre, which was let down at the beginning of the piece [mittitur, premitur aulaeum], and drawn up at the end of it [tollitur aulaeum]; compare Schmid, Hor., Ep., 2, 1, 189): to draw the curtains round anything, velis aliquid obtendere: to draw or pull down the curtains, vela obducere: to open or draw the curtains, vela reducere.
Term in fortification, murus intergerinus.
A curtain lecture, *uxoria admonitio or objurgatio: *uxoris nocturna objurgatio: to read a husband a curtain-lecture, maritum graviter monere.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for curtain?
- The usual Latin words for “curtain” are vēlum, plagula, aulaeum; also mittō, obiūrgātiō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.