Etymologically
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commendatio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɔm.mɛnˈdaː.ti.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kom.menˈdat.t͡si.o][1]

Forms

commendātiō f (genitive commendātiōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin commendō (“to entrust, recommend”) + -tiō,[1][2][3] from con- and mandō (“to entrust”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Thesaurus finds it from Cicero on, and Cicero alone has about half of all its examples; among the poets only Publilius Syrus and Phaedrus use it, once each.[3] His first sense is the entrusting of children or parents to someone's care.[2]

Semantic evolution

From entrusting it came to mean recommendation and praise, as in Cicero's book that will be published under his friend's name even without his own recommendation.[2][4] In rhetoric it is the part of a speech that wins favour for a cause, and it is also the recommendation of a candidate for office.[2] Cicero uses it of the prompting of the eyes in memory, of favourable notice or esteem, and of what recommends a person, as a man “known only by himself, without any recommendation from his ancestors”.[2]

In medieval texts it is an order or mandate, and the commendation of oneself to a lord, the homage of a vassal.[5] Church Latin glosses it “recommendation”.[6]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of entrusting, recommendation and esteem.[2][3][7]
  • c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus uses it once.[3][7]
  • Middle Ages – The homage of a vassal to a lord.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The entrusting of someone to another's care.[2][1]
  2. Recommendation, praise; the recommendation of a candidate.[2][4][1]
  3. Favourable notice, esteem.[2][1]
  4. A ground of recommendation, an advantage.[2]
  5. (Medieval Latin) An order, mandate; the commendation of oneself to a lord, homage.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de