condiscipulus

Forms

condiscipulus m (genitive condiscipulī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- (“with, together”) + discipulus (“pupil”).^[2][1][3] The origin of discipulus is uncertain: Walde and Hofmann derived it from a verb compounded of dis- and capiō (“to take”), meaning “to grasp mentally”, which de Vaan does not find compelling.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest instance is in an Atellan farce of Pomponius.^[3][5] Cicero, its first dated author,^[6] has it in the Pro Sulla of someone who had been his schoolfellow in boyhood.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it meant a fellow pupil or schoolfellow, in Cicero, Nepos, Seneca, Quintilian, Suetonius and Pliny the Younger.^[7][5] Ecclesiastical Latin used it for a fellow disciple.^[8]

Medieval writers used it for a fellow pupil of a school or master, for a fellow novice trained in a monastic rule, for a fellow disciple of Christ or of a teacher, and for a fellow believer.^[9] Aldhelm calls Gregory a fellow student of Basil in philosophy,^[9] and the spelling cun- occurs in Agnellus.^[9] It survives in Italian condiscepolo.^[10]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a schoolfellow.^[3][6]
• c. 100–24 BC – Nepos uses it in his life of Atticus.^[7][6]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of pupils taught together.^[7][6]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it of a fellow student in philosophy.^[9][6]
• 3rd quarter of the 8th century – Arbeo uses it.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fellow pupil, schoolfellow.^[2][7][5]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A fellow disciple.^[8][9]
3. (Medieval Latin) A fellow novice in a monastery.^[9]

Word family

• condiscipula
• condiscipulātus

Related words

• discipulus

References

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