comperendino

Forms

comperendinō (present infinitive comperendināre, perfect active comperendināvī, supine comperendinātum); first conjugation^[1] It is also spelled conperendinō.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin comperendinus, said of the day on which an adjourned trial was resumed,^[2][3] which is a compound of con- and perendinus (“of the day after tomorrow”).^[2] De Vaan derives ⟨perendinus⟩ from perendiē (“on the day after tomorrow”), which he explains from ⟨*perno-diē(d)⟩ with Proto-Italic *perno- (“foremost”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero's speeches against Verres,^[5][6] as a legal term for adjourning a trial, or the trial of a defendant, to the third following day or later.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short describe it as a legal term used properly of the judge, who summoned the defendant to a new hearing;^[3][5] Cicero also uses it of the party that asks for the adjournment, as ut ante primos ludos comperendinem, “so that I may obtain an adjournment before the first games”.^[3][5] An inscription uses it of putting something by for another time.^[5] Minucius Felix and the Itinerarium Alexandri have it in the general sense “to postpone”.^[6]

Medieval writers used it for putting off or delaying anything: Aldhelm, the Life of Louis the Pious, and a Life of Godehard, where the brothers put off a synod to the following year.^[7] Stelten's Ecclesiastical Latin gloss keeps the legal sense.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of adjourning the trial of a defendant.^[3][9]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it in the sense “to put off”.^[7][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (law) To adjourn the trial of (a person) or (a trial) to the third following day or later; to obtain such an adjournment.^[2][3]
2. To postpone, put off.^[6][7]

Word family

• comperendinātiō
• comperendinātus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de