-ium

Forms

-ium n (genitive -iī or -ī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin -ius¹ (“adjective-forming suffix”), the neuter of the adjective used as a noun.^[2][1][3] Wiktionary compares Ancient Greek -ιον (-ion), Proto-Germanic *-(i)ją and Proto-Slavic *-ьje.^[1] The adjective goes back to Proto-Indo-European *-yós.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Weiss cites comitium and testimōnium from the Twelve Tables, and Plautus already has gaudium, studium and portōrium.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Some neuter nouns in -ium are made from nouns, as coniugium from coniūnx.^[3] Others come from verbs, as imperium from imperō.^[3] Some name offices or groups.^[1] The deverbal abstracts tend to be words of attraction or of repulsion, with a stem ending in d or r: dēsīderium beside odium, fastīdium and taedium.^[3] Wiktionary says that the suffix may no longer be productive.^[1] In New Latin the ending was taken up for the names of chemical elements.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has gaudium, studium and exitium.^[3][4]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius has iūdicium, imperium and initium.^[3][4]
• c. 190–159 BC – Terence has coniugium.^[3][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero has praetōrium “tent of the praetor”.^[3][4]

Meanings

Suffix

1. Forms neuter nouns, as the neuter of -ius: capitium, cōnfluvium.^[2]
2. Forms nouns from nouns, often naming offices or positions: praetōrium from praetor, coniugium.^[1][3]
3. Forms abstract nouns from verbs: gaudium from gaudeō, studium from studeō.^[1][3]
4. (New Latin) Forms names of chemical elements.^[1]

Word family

• -tōrium
• -mōnium
• -itium
• capitium
• cōnfluvium
• comitium
• coniugium
• dēsīderium
• exitium
• fastīdium
• gaudium
• imperium
• initium
• iūdicium
• odium
• patrimōnium
• portōrium
• praetōrium
• studium
• taedium
• testimōnium

Related words

• -ia
• -ius
• -ārium

Usage notes

The genitive singular -iī was regularly contracted to -ī, as in consilī and imperī, with the accent kept where the longer form had it; this was the normal form down through the Augustan period, and -iī replaced it later.^[5] Some scholars treat -tōrium as a suffix of its own, but in Old and Classical Latin such words can nearly always be analysed as made from an agent noun in -tor.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Weiss, Michael (2020), Outline of the Historical and Comparative Grammar of Latin, 2nd ed., Ann Arbor: Beech Stave
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Sihler, Andrew L. (1995), New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, New York: OUP