Does "aurea" have the second meaning?
According to Latin Word Study Tool, aurea doesn't mean "the bridle of a horse" in the following context in my opinion:
"trecenta quoque scuta aurea trecentorum aureorum, quibus tegebantur singula scuta"
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1Can you clarify your question a bit? It's not clear what meaning you are referring to and how it is "obsolete"?– brianpckJun 12, 2019 at 15:30
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Perhaps you can expand your question a bit? Information like that should be in the body of the question, since it's pretty much impossible to understand the question without that context!– brianpckJun 12, 2019 at 15:41
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Lewis & Short is not referring to this quotation. The shields are undoubtedly golden and not bridles. Nevertheless, aureas are bridles.– HughJun 12, 2019 at 17:58
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2 Answers
In this case the word isn't aurea but aureus, an adjective meaning "golden, of gold"—in the feminine singular and neuter plural it looks just like aurea "bridle", but the "golden" meaning is much more common.
Very literal translation:
trecenta quoque scuta aurea trecentorum aureorum, quibus tegebantur singula scuta
And also three hundred golden shields [made] out of three hundred golden [shekels] (with which each individual shield was covered).
The grammar here is kind of awkward, but the point is that Solomon had so much gold he could use ninety thousand shekels of it to make shields.
answered Jun 12, 2019 at 16:14
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2To complement this excellent answer: the quotation is from 2 Chron. 9:16: trecenta quoque scuta aurea trecentorum aureorum quibus tegebantur scuta singula posuitque ea rex in armamentario quod erat consitum nemore.– fdbJun 12, 2019 at 19:17
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The important quotation is
the bridle of a horse: aureas dicebant frenos, quibus equorum aures religantur, Paul. ex Fest. p. 27 Müll.
"They call the reins aureas, with which the ears of horses are bound up."
In the third section of Ainsworth's lexicon, Index Vocum (Dialects) 'aureas' is explained as both a dialect adjective meaning 'of the ears,' a head-stall, and hence by synecdoche 'the bridle itself.'
He adds
[ qu. orea, frequens enim est commutatio o in au, ap. ant. quod fit in oro equi, ...] and then gives an example from Greek.
Finally he mentions Aureax [ cf auriger] a carter. But these are all late or dialect forms.
