baiulo

Forms

baiulō (present infinitive baiulāre, perfect active baiulāvī, supine baiulātum); first conjugation^[1] The OLD also gives the spelling bāiiulō,^[2] and Plautus' Mercator has baiiolāre;^[3] later texts have baiolō.^[1][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin bāiulus (“porter, carrier”) + -ō, a verb made from the noun for a porter.^[2][5][6][1] The origin of the noun itself is unknown;^[2] Etymonline reports suggestions of a Germanic or a Celtic source, and de Vaan's view that a Proto-Indo-European origin is unlikely either way.^[7]

It lives on in Old French baillier (“to control, guard, deliver”), Occitan balhar and Franco-Provençal balyér.^[1][7] The Old French verb gave English bail “bail, security”, and Etymonline traces its homonym “to dip water out” to a Medieval Latin *baiula (“water-carrier”) made from the same verb.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus first has it, meaning to carry a load as a porter does: in the Asinaria a character says he never learnt to carry burdens (nōn didicī bāiulāre), and the Mercator has the spelling baiiolāre.^[4][3][8][9]

Semantic evolution

The verb is mostly ante- and post-classical.^[10] Phaedrus has an ass bāiulāns sarcinās, carrying packs,^[10][4] and a jurist in the Digest defines it as carrying a thing on one's own body, unlike things carried on a pack animal or driven along.^[10]

In Christian Latin it means to bear something heavy in a moral sense: the Vulgate has Christ's saying about bearing one's cross (crucem suam, Luke 14:27), and the Theodosian Code uses it of taking on another's debt.^[10] Medieval writers used it for carrying and bringing in general, for taking up an office and for enduring evils.^[11] Through Old French baillier it gave the English legal word bail, whose earliest English senses were “charge, guardianship” and “custody”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a porter carrying loads.^[4][8][9]
• c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus writes of an ass carrying packs.^[10][4][9]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of bearing one's cross.^[10][9]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it of bees carrying their loads.^[11][9]
• early 14th century – English bail “charge, guardianship”, from Old French baillier, is first recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To carry a burden on one's back or body; to bear something heavy.^[2][10][4]
2. (intransitive) To work as a porter.^[8][5]
3. (Late Latin, figurative) To bear, take upon oneself.^[10][11]
4. (Medieval Latin) To bring, convey; to carry out an office; to endure.^[11]

Word family

• baiulātiō
• baiulator
• baiulātōrius

Related words

• English bail
• English bailiff

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
4. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften