attributum

Forms

attribūtum n (genitive attribūtī); second declension^[1][2] It is also spelled adtribūtum.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is the neuter past participle of attribuō (“to assign”), used as a noun.^[1][2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its only Classical author is Varro, for money assigned from the public treasury.^[1][2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

The scholastic philosophers used it for an attribute, a property that belongs to a thing in its own right: Thomas Aquinas says that attributes differ in reason and speaks of attributes appropriated to the divine persons.^[5] Ecclesiastical Latin keeps the senses “attribute” and “predicate”.^[6] Köbler records it again in Notker, about 1000.^[3] Conte gives it as the source of Italian attributo.^[4]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of money assigned from the treasury.^[1][2][3]
• c. 1000 – Notker uses it.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A grant of public money.^[1][2][4]
2. (Medieval Latin) An attribute, a property proper to something.^[5][6][3]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A predicate.^[6]

Related words

• attribuō
• English attribute

References

1. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Schütz, Ludwig (1895), Thomas-Lexikon, 2nd ed., Paderborn: F. Schöningh
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson