auctionarius

Forms

auctiōnārius (feminine auctiōnāria, neuter auctiōnārium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin auctiō (“auction”) + -ārius.^[2][3] De Vaan lists auctiō (“public sale”) among the derivatives of augeō (“to increase”),^[4] which de Vaan traces back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eug- (“to grow”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero, in the speeches on the agrarian law (63 BC): spendthrifts hold sales in the atria auctionaria, the halls where auctions were held, rather than at crossroads.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

In the second speech against Catiline Cicero uses tabulae auctionariae for the lists of goods to be sold at auction.^[5][6] An inscription also records an atrium auctionarium.^[3] Later, as a masculine noun, it named a bidder at an auction, in the Tironian notes and in a letter of Gregory the Great,^[6] and in medieval Latin a retailer.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of auction halls and auction lists.^[5][8]
• 540–604 AD – Gregory the Great uses it as a noun for a bidder.^[6][8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or connected with auction sales.^[2][5]

Noun

1. (Late Latin) A bidder at an auction.^[6]
2. (Medieval Latin) A retailer.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d 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 Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de