aedilitas

Forms

aedīlitās f (genitive aedīlitātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin aedīlis (“aedile”) + -tās.^[2][3][1] The aedile was named from aedēs (“temple, house”),^[4] which goes back to Proto-Italic *aiþ- (“fireplace”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂(e)idʰ- (“burning”): the noun first meant the hearth, then a room with a hearth and a one-room temple.^[4] Cognate with Old Irish áed (“fire”), Ancient Greek αἴθω (aíthō, “to burn”) and Old English ād (“pyre”).^[4] The title Oscan aídíl was borrowed from Latin.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] whose Stichus has aedilitatem gerere “to hold the aedileship”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is the office of an aedile at Rome, as in Cicero's man who had twice been defeated for the aedileship, and a particular tenure of it, as Cicero's “most splendid aedileships”.^[2][5] Suetonius uses it of the office of a town's aedile, held by Albucius Silus in his native Novara.^[2]

In medieval texts it is the office of custodian in a house of canons.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of holding the aedileship.^[5][4][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of candidates and tenures of the office.^[2][7]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius of a municipal aedile.^[2][7]
• Middle Ages – Of a custodian of canons.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The office of an aedile, the aedileship.^[2][5][1]
2. The office of a municipal aedile.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) The office of custodian in a house of canons.^[6]

Related words

• aedīlis
• aedēs

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de