admissum

Forms

admissum n (genitive admissī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin admittō (“to let in; to commit”), the neuter of its perfect participle used as a noun.^[1][2] That verb is a compound of ad- and mittō (“to send”),^[3] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *meit-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *m(e)ith₂- (“to exchange, remove”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Conte give Laevius as its first author,^[3][4] with the sense “a crime, misdeed”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Cicero speaks of judgements that can be incurred without any offence, Livy of such a crime and Tacitus of the misdeeds of Poppaea;^[5][6][2] Ovid has it in the Metamorphoses and the Heroides.^[5][6][2] Lucretius has it of a shameful act, and Tacitus uses male admissa still with some participial force.^[2][6] In the Digest it stands beside delicta for military offences,^[6] and Tertullian and other Christian writers continue to use it.^[7]

Timeline

• 2nd/1st century BC – Laevius uses it.^[4][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of an offence.^[5][8]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy speaks of such a crime.^[5][8]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus speaks of the crimes of Poppaea.^[2][8]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it.^[7][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A crime, offence, misdeed.^[1][5]

Usage notes

The TLL lists as near-synonyms commissum, crimen, culpa, delictum, facinus, flagitium, peccatum and scelus.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
3. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de