Etymologically
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abiudico

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [abˈjuː.dɪ.koː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [abˈjuː.di.ko][1]

Forms

abiūdicō (present infinitive abiūdicāre, perfect active abiūdicāvī, supine abiūdicātum); first conjugation[1] The agrarian law has the older spelling abioudicārī.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin ab- (“away from”) + iūdicō (“to judge”), the opposite of adiūdicō (“to award by judgement”).[3][1][4] The verb iūdicō is formed on iūdex (“judge”), which de Vaan derives from ⟨*ious-dik-⟩, a compound of iūs2 (“law”) and the root of dīcō2 (“to say”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it in the Rudens: abiudicata a me modo est Palaestra, “Palaestra has just been taken from me by the verdict”;[3][4] in the Asinaria he jokes me a vita abiudicabo, “I shall adjudge myself out of life”.[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Its legal sense is to take something away from someone by a judicial verdict, to declare that it does not belong to them.[3][4] Cicero uses it in the speeches on the agrarian law, where Rullus would adjudge Alexandria to the king and take it from the Roman people, and in the Verrines and Pro Caecina figuratively, of a man who has denied himself his freedom.[4][3] Livy and Tacitus use it of land taken away by a verdict, and Ulpian in the Digest.[3] In the De oratore Cicero uses it for rejecting an argument outright, though many editors read abdicō there.[3][4] A glossary explains abiudicas as negas, “you deny”,[2] and in Ecclesiastical Latin it means to take away by judgement or to deny.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Rudens and the Asinaria.[3][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in his speeches on the agrarian law and for rejecting an argument.[3][4][8]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of land taken away by a verdict.[3][8]
  • before 223 AD – Ulpian uses it in the Digest.[3][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (law) To take away by a judicial verdict; to declare that something does not belong to someone, abjudicate.[3][4][1]
  2. (figurative) To deny, deprive of: sibi libertatem abiudicare, to deny oneself one's freedom.[4][9]
  3. To reject, dismiss.[3][10]

Word family

  • abiūdicātīvus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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 d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  9. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  10. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier