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appropriatio

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word appropriatio

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
400s Caelius Aurelianus More words from the 4th century
Ultimate origin
Latin proprius
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin proprius
French propre
Italian proprio
Spanish propio
Latin appropriō
Latin appropriātiō
English appropriation
From the same root
English proper ← proprius
Latin improprius ← proprius
Latin propriē ← proprius
Latin proprietās ← proprius
Latin propriō ← proprius

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ap.prɔ.priˈaː.ti.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ap.pro.priˈat.t͡si.o][1]

Forms

appropriātiō f (genitive appropriātiōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin appropriō + -tiō.[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Caelius Aurelianus' work on chronic diseases, where the appropriatio of food is its conversion into the body's own substance.[2][3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

In medieval charters it became a legal term for transferring property into someone's full ownership, a donation.[6] The scholastics used it for attributing a quality to someone, especially to one person of the Trinity, and for the quality so attributed;[6] Albertus Magnus also used it for a transfer or transmission.[6] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means appropriation.[7]

Neo-Latin writers such as Pico della Mirandola kept the sense of taking something as one's own.[8] It passed into the Romance languages, as French appropriation and Italian appropriazione,[1] and English took appropriation from it in the late 14th century.[9]

Timeline

  • 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it of the assimilation of food.[3][10]
  • 1253 – A Pomeranian charter names witnesses to a donation and appropriatio.[6]
  • late 14th century – English borrows it as appropriacioun.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Late Latin, medicine) The assimilation of food into the body.[2][3][5]
  2. (Medieval Latin, law) A transfer into full ownership, donation.[6]
  3. (Medieval Latin, philosophy) Attribution of a quality; a quality so attributed.[6]
  4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Appropriation.[7]
  5. (New Latin) Taking as one's own.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Appropriatio.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/la/appropriatio. Accessed 8 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·