Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Tunicatus

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

TUNICA'TUS (μονοχίτων, οἰοχίτων). In a general sense, wearing a tunic; but the word is more commonly opposed in an express manner to togatus, and means wearing only the tunic, as corresponding with our expression "in his shirt," or "without his coat." (Suet. Aug. 24. Ib. 100. Nero, 48.) The term, when applied to persons of the better classes, sometimes conveys a notion of being at their ease in the country, or in dishabille, as they were in the habit of taking off the toga when at home or out of town, whence tunicata quies (Mart. x. 51.) expresses the ease and independence of home or the country; but it is more frequently applied in a sense exactly contrary to this, indicating that the person is occupied in active exercise or labour (Cic. Cael. 5.), because it was necessary to lay aside the cumbrous and embarrassing toga upon such occasions; and in this sense it is commonly used to characterise the lower or labouring classes (Hor. Ep. i. 7. 65.), whose daily occupations compelled them to wear a tunic only, without the toga. The illustrations s. TUNICA, 1. exhibit a figure in the tunic only contrasted with another in the tunic and toga; and thus distinctly illustrate the different images called to the mind by the several terms tunicatus and togatus.