adiutorium

Forms

adiūtōrium n (genitive adiūtōriī or adiūtōrī); second declension^[1] It is also spelled adjūtōrium.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin adiuvō (“to help”) + -tōrium, beside adiūtor (“helper”).^[3][4][2] De Vaan traces iuvō to Proto-Indo-European *h₁i-h₁euH- (“to help”), cognate with Sanskrit अवति (ávati, “helps, protects”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short find it probably not before the Augustan period; their first citation is Velleius, of a great band of Thracians brought along to help in the war.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is help, assistance or support: Seneca speaks of the help of fire, and Quintilian of the support of law.^[2] Columella has it in the plural.^[2] Frontinus uses it of a spring good enough to supplement the water of the Marcia.^[3] The grammarians note that the Romans made it neuter where the Greeks used a feminine.^[4] Köbler records it in glosses on the Psalter.^[6] In Medieval Latin it is also the material help owed to a substitute by a man who did not serve in the army in person.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 20 BC–30 AD – Velleius, of Thracian auxiliaries.^[2][6]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca, of the help of fire.^[2][6]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian, of the support of law.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Help, assistance, support.^[3][2][1][8]
2. A supplementation of a water supply.^[3]
3. (Medieval Latin) Material help owed to a substitute in the army.^[7]

Related words

• adiuvō
• adiūtor
• iuvō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson