Etymologically
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adiudico

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Pronunciation

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

Forms

adiūdicō (present infinitive adiūdicāre, perfect active adiūdicāvī, supine adiūdicātum); first conjugation[1] An inscription has adiovdico.[2][3] A tragic fragment quoted in the Rhetorica ad Herennium has the infinitive adiūdicārier.[3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- + iūdicō (“to judge”),[2][1][5] from iūdex (“judge”), for which de Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *jowes-dik- (“judge”), built on the word that became iūs2 (“law”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it jokingly in the Menaechmi, “decide which of the two you will spend this night with”.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It is a technical term, to award something as judge, especially in dividing an inheritance or fixing boundaries, and is not often used of other things.[5] A law on an inscription speaks of land that may be awarded;[2][4] Cicero has lands that Scipio Africanus awarded to the Roman people, a house awarded to himself, and a woman adjudged as a slave to Venus;[2][4] Caesar has a magistracy awarded to Convictolitavis, and Livy a judge who awards disputed property to himself.[2] With causam and a dative it is to decide a case in someone's favour.[2][4] Horace uses it of awarding to Italian arms whatever is still lacking.[2][4] More widely it is to ascribe: Cicero writes that the senate credited him with saving the empire, and Pliny the Elder has the man who first judged Lucrine oysters the best.[2][3] Ambrose has adjudging a person to death.[3] Church Latin has “judge, sentence”.[7] English adjudge (late 14th century) came through Old French, and adjudicate (1700) from the participle.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, jokingly, “decide”.[2][9]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of lands and a house awarded.[2][9]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar, of a magistracy awarded.[2][9]
  • c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose, of adjudging to death.[3][9]
  • late 14th century – English adjudge, through Old French.[8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To award as judge, adjudge, assign;[2][4][1] causam alicui adiūdicāre, to decide a case in someone's favour.[2][4][1]
  2. To ascribe, attribute.[2][3][1]
  3. (Late Latin) To condemn, sentence.[3][7]

Word family

  • adiūdicātiō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de