Etymologically
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coercitio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ko.ɛrˈkɪ.ti.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ko.erˈt͡ʃit.t͡si.o][1]

Forms

coërcitiō f (genitive coërcitiōnis); third declension[1] It is also spelled cohercitio, very often in manuscripts;[2][3] the shorter coertio and coerctio also occur.[3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin coerceō (“to confine, restrain”) + -tiō.[2][3][1] That verb is a compound of com- and arceō (“to keep off, contain”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *ark-eje/o- (“to contain, keep out”) and Proto-Indo-European *h2(o)r(ḱ)-ei̯e/o- (“to hold”).[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Livy on,[3][6] who has sine coercitione magistratus, “without punishment by the magistrates”.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

In its general sense it is restraint or repression: Velleius Paterculus uses it of a consul who turned all his power to curbing electoral corruption, Celsus of harsh restraint of patients, and Tacitus of curbing extravagance.[2][7] More specifically it is the summary punishment a magistrate or other person in authority inflicts to enforce obedience, and the right to inflict it, as in Seneca and Suetonius, who says that Augustus took from the magistrates the power of punishing actors.[2][7] In this sense it is a technical term of the jurists, frequent in Gaius, Ulpian and the Digest, with phrases such as coercitio capitalis, capital punishment.[3][2][7] It is also frequent in the Church writers;[3] Lactantius explains it as the governing of subjects' discipline.[3] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means coercion, restraint, compulsion, check.[8]

Timeline

  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of punishment by the magistrates.[3][2][6]
  • c. 20 BC–30 AD – Velleius Paterculus uses it of curbing electoral corruption.[2][6]
  • 140–180 AD – Gaius uses it as a legal term for punishment.[2][3][6]
  • c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius explains it as the governing of discipline.[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Restraint, repression, curbing.[2][7]
  2. Summary punishment by a magistrate or other authority to enforce obedience; the right to inflict it.[2][4]
  3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Coercion, compulsion, check.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson