Today I received a copy of Leo F. Stelten’s Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin (via Amazon.com). I’ve not really had a chance to look at it yet.
But this evening it had its first test. John the Deacon’s Life of St Nicholas describes the city of Patara, the saint’s home town, as once “rutilabat”. The Oxford Latin Dictionary gives “rutilo, -are” as “to glow with a bright or golden red colour”, especially thinking of German hair! Nor did Neimeyer or Blaise give anything different.
Stelten passed. In church Latin, apparently, it means “shine” or “glow”. This makes perfect sense of John’s, um, glowing description of the city.
Clearly I need to spend more time with this book.