Titius

Forms

Titius m sg (genitive Titiī or Titī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin Titus + -ius, from the praenomen Titus.^[1] Köbler calls its origin unclear.^[2] As with other Roman family names, the adjective names things belonging to or named after a member of the family.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Cicero on,^[2] as the name of a Roman gens: in the Brutus he names Gaius Titius, an orator of the 2nd century BC.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Cicero tells of Sextus Titius, a tribune of the people whose gestures were so like dancing that a dance was called Titius after him.^[4] Used as an adjective, it named buildings put up by a Titius: Livy records the purchase of two halls, the Maenium and the Titium.^[3] The sodales Titii were an obscure priesthood that tradition linked with the Sabine king Titus Tatius, and Festus says a curia Titia was named by the same king.^[3]

The Roman jurists used Titius and Titia as stock names for the parties in legal examples, as in a case in the Digest where Titia pledges another person's farm to Titius.^[3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero names members of the gens Titius.^[3][2]
• 116–27 BC – Varro mentions the sodales Titii.^[3][2]
• 59 BC–AD 17 – Livy names the atrium Titium.^[3][2]
• 2nd century AD – The jurist Africanus uses Titius and Titia as names in a legal example.^[3][2]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. The name of a Roman gens.^[3][4]
2. (law) A fictitious name for a party in legal examples.^[3]

Adjective

1. Of or named after a Titius.^[3]
2. sodālis Titius: a member of an obscure Roman priesthood.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press