Etymologically
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attributum

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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]

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