Etymologically
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admissum

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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