Etymologically
Log in

approbatio

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 14:59. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Forms

approbātiō f (genitive approbātiōnis); third declension[1] Also spelled adprobātiō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin approbō (“to approve, commend”) + -tiō.[2][1] That verb is formed from ad- and probō (“to approve, prove”),[4][5] which de Vaan derives from probus (“good, honest”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest example in the TLL is in Cicero's De inventione, where the approval or offence of people (hominum aut adprobātiō aut offēnsiō) is weighed.[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Most of its classical uses are Cicero's: the approval of an audience, the people or the senate.[3][6] In Cicero's philosophical works it renders the Stoic term for the mind's assent to what it perceives, which the Greeks called synkatathesis, and it can also mean a settled decision.[2][8] In rhetoric it is the proof that confirms a suspicion or a premise.[2][9]

Ecclesiastical Latin used it for approval and sanction.[10] English approbation (early 15th century) comes from it, partly through Old French.[4]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for the approval of hearers and for philosophical assent.[2][6][7]
  • 59 BC–AD 17 – Livy uses it of the approval of the senate.[6][7]
  • early 15th century – English borrows it as approbation.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Approval, approbation, assent.[2][3]
  2. (philosophy) The mind's assent to what it perceives.[2][8]
  3. A settled attitude or decision.[2]
  4. (rhetoric) A proof, confirmation.[2][9]
  5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Sanction.[10]
  • English approbation

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  10. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson