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ademptio

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word ademptio

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
81–43 BC, Cicero
Ultimate origin
Latin adimō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin adimo
Latin ademptio

Forms

adēmptiō f (genitive adēmptiōnis); third declension[1] Glosses also have a popular form adimitio.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin adimō (“to take away”) + -tiō.[3][1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL's first example is from Cicero's speech De domo sua, on the taking away of citizenship (civitatis);[2][4] Lewis and Short treat that speech as not by Cicero.[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant a taking away, deprivation or removal:[3][5] Tacitus uses it of the seizure of property and of a province.[5] In law it was the revocation of a legacy and the withholding of a right, as in Ulpian.[3] Ecclesiastical Latin uses it for seizure or expropriation.[6]

Medieval Latin kept it for taking away or deprivation, as in the Formulae of Marculf, and also used it for an abolition or annulment.[7]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – It appears in Cicero's speech De domo sua, of citizenship taken away.[2][4]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of property and of a province.[5][4]
  • before 223 AD – Ulpian uses it of withholding a right.[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A taking away, deprivation, removal; a seizure.[3][5][6]
  2. (law) The revocation of a legacy; the withholding of a right.[3]
  3. (Medieval Latin) An abolition, annulment.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
Cite this entry

“Ademptio.” Etymologically, 24 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/ademptio. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·