Etymologically
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appendicium

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Forms

appendicium n (genitive appendiciī or appendicī); second declension[1] Medieval variants include adpendicium, appenditium and a feminine appendicia.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin appendix (“appendage”) + -ium.[4][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Jerome, in the plural, which is the only number the TLL finds in Late Latin: modesty cannot win trust sine comitibus et appendiciīs suīs, “without its companions and appendages”, restraint and frugality.[4][6]

Semantic evolution

Caelius Aurelianus uses it in medicine for the accompanying features of a disease.[4][6]

In medieval charters it became a legal word for everything that belongs to an estate or building: its lands and rights, an outlying farm, a dependent church.[2][7] A Catalan document of 867 uses it of a territorial boundary or district,[8] and the early medieval formularies of an appendage or addition.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses the plural of the companions of a virtue.[4][3]
  • 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it in medicine.[4][3]
  • 867 – A Catalan charter uses it of a territory.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Late Latin, usually plural) An appendage, accompaniment, adjunct.[5][4][6]
  2. (Medieval Latin, law) An appurtenance of an estate or building; an outlying farm or dependent church.[2][7]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A district or boundary.[8]

Usage notes

Wiktionary treats it as another form of appendix.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b 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 Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
  8. ^ a b c Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis Cataloniae (1960–; online ed. 2025), Barcelona: CSIC / Institució Milà i Fontanals, gmlc.imf.csic.es
  9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Liber exquisiti xenii: Lexikon frühmittelalterlicher Rechtswörter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de