adiumentum

Forms

adiūmentum n (genitive adiūmentī); second declension^[1] It is also spelled adjūmentum.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin adiuvō (“to help”) + -mentum, contracted from ⟨*adiuvāmentum⟩.^[3][2][4] The verb is from ad- and iuvō (“to help”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *ijow- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁i-h₁euH- (“to help”).^[5] Cognate with Sanskrit अवति (ávati, “helps, protects”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example in the Thesaurus is in Plautus' Epidicus;^[4] Terence says of a girl that she had nothing to help her beauty.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a means of help, aid, support or assistance, as in Cicero's esse alicui magno adiumento “to be a great help to someone”.^[3][2] Church Latin glosses it “help, assistance, aid”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[4][7]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of what helps beauty.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A means of aid, help, support, assistance.^[3][2][1]

Related words

• adiuvō
• iuvō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de