beneficialis

Forms

beneficiālis (neuter beneficiāle); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin beneficium (“benefit, favour”) + -ālis.^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cassiodorus is the first to use it, in the sense of the older beneficus, “doing good”:^[2][3] in his Variae he writes that it is right for a ruler to be beneficent, and that antiquity gave a Greek name meaning “beneficial” to the baths of Aponus.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the early Middle Ages it was attached to the beneficium in the feudal sense: land held beneficiālī iūre or beneficiālī ōrdine was held as a benefice, by feudal tenure, and land could be described as granted as a benefice.^[4][3] In Church law it was used of what concerns an ecclesiastical benefice, as in causa beneficiālis, a suit over a benefice.^[5] It kept the plain sense “beneficial, conferring benefit”, as when an English record speaks of a free, gracious and beneficial pardon.^[5][6]

Timeline

• c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus uses it of a beneficent ruler.^[2][3]
• 856 – A royal diploma uses it.^[3]
• 1522 – A Scottish record speaks of a causa beneficiālis.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Late Latin) Beneficent, beneficial, generous.^[2][6][1]
2. (Medieval Latin) Held as a benefice or fief, by feudal tenure; granted as a benefice.^[4]
3. (Medieval Latin, ecclesiastical law) Concerning a church benefice.^[5]

Related words

• beneficus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson