comitialis

Forms

comitiālis (neuter comitiāle); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin comitium (“place of assembly”) + -ālis.^[2][3][1] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of comes (“companion”), a compound of com- and the root for “to go”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first,^[4][3] once, in the Poenulus, of men who are always at the comitia and sell their votes.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Its main classical use was for the dies comitiales, the days on which assemblies of the people could be held: Cicero, Varro, Caesar and Livy have it.^[2][5][7]

Morbus comitialis was epilepsy, in Celsus and later; the name was explained by the belief that a fit during an assembly was an ill omen that broke up the meeting.^[5][7] From this, Pliny the Elder uses it of an epileptic person and, in the plural, of epileptic fits.^[2][6][7] The TLL notes that the transferred, medical sense is found chiefly in the medical writers and Pliny, and that no poet but Plautus uses the word.^[3] A charter of Louis the Pious of 817 uses it of the power of a count.^[8] Italian comiziale continues it.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of men who haunt the assemblies.^[5][3][9]
• 116–27 BC – Varro explains the comitial days.^[2][5][9]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of comitial days and a comitial month.^[5][9]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus names epilepsy morbus comitialis.^[2][9]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of epileptics.^[2][6][9]
• 817 – A charter of Louis the Pious speaks of a count's power as comitialis.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the comitia, comitial; of the days on which assemblies could be held.^[2][5]
2. morbus comitialis: epilepsy.^[2][5]
3. Suffering from epilepsy, epileptic.^[2][6]
4. (Medieval Latin) Of a count.^[8]

Noun

1. An epileptic.^[5][7]
2. (plural) Epileptic fits.^[6][7]

Related words

• comitium
• comitia

Usage notes

Pliny the Elder also has the adverb comitialiter, “by epilepsy”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d 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 e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de