Etymologically
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collibertus

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Forms

collībertus m (genitive collībertī); second declension[1] Inscriptions very often write ⟨conl-⟩, and also ⟨colibertus⟩; the Sullan period has ⟨conleibertus⟩.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- (“with, together”) + lībertus (“freedman”).[3][2][4] De Vaan lists lībertus among the derivatives of līber1 (“free”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *leuþ-ero- and Proto-Indo-European *h₁leudʰ-ero-.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first, once, in Plautus,[2][6] whose Poenulus has the promise meus collibertus faxo eris, “I'll make you my fellow freedman”.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

It is a fellow freedman, one freed by the same master.[3][7] The TLL finds it once in Cicero, four times in Petronius, often in the jurists and very often in inscriptions from the age of Sulla on.[2] Cicero has merchants of Puteoli who say that some of their freedmen and fellow freedmen were robbed,[2] and the jurists use it in questions of inheritance and partnership.[2]

In the early Middle Ages it was used for a free man in his relations with another, and also for a dependant of the lowest unfree class without a holding,[8] a sense that Old French continued in cuivert.[2] In England it rendered the Old English gebur, a freed or half-free peasant, as in Domesday Book; later it was a contemptuous word for a churl.[9] Early medieval law codes such as the Bavarian and Lombard laws use it,[6] and Old High German glosses render it with friginoz.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Poenulus.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the freedmen of merchants of Puteoli.[2][6]
  • before 66 AD – Petronius uses it four times.[2][6]
  • 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it.[9][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A fellow freedman, one freed by the same master.[3][7]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A free man in relation to another free man.[8]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A dependant of the lowest unfree class; a freed or half-free serf.[8][9]
  4. (Medieval Latin) A churl (as a term of contempt).[9]

Word family

  • collīberta

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  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 f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  9. ^ 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