Etymologically
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confessus

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Forms

cōnfessus (feminine cōnfessa, neuter cōnfessum); first/second-declension adjective[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin cōnfiteor (“to admit, confess”), its past participle, used as an adjective.[1][3][4] That verb is a compound of com- and fateor (“to admit”).[5][2]

Italian confesso continues it.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first author is Cicero.[4] The OLD's earliest example, though, is a law of the Twelve Tables: aeris cōnfessī rēbusque iūre iūdicātīs XXX diēs iūstī suntō, “for money admitted to be owed and for matters lawfully judged, let thirty days be the legal term”.[1][2]

Semantic evolution

Mostly it has the passive sense of the verb: admitted, acknowledged, as when Quintilian speaks of using Greek words that are accepted, and so generally admitted, manifest, beyond dispute.[1][2] Cicero speaks of trying to buy off a case that is plain to all, and Seneca of wasting effort on something obvious.[1] The neuter gave phrases such as ex cōnfessō, “avowedly”, in Seneca, and in cōnfessō esse, “to be undisputed”, in Pliny the Elder.[2]

In the active sense it means having confessed, and as a noun one who has admitted a debt or a crime: Sallust has dē cōnfessīs supplicium sūmere, “to punish those who have confessed”,[2] and the jurist Paulus states that cōnfessus prō iūdicātō est, “one who confesses counts as judged”.[1]

In Medieval Latin a noun cōnfessus meant a penitent who had made his confession, and later a confession.[4]

Timeline

  • 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it of those who have confessed.[2][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of an undeniable matter.[1][4]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses ex cōnfessō and in rē cōnfessā.[1][2][4]
  • first half of the 3rd century AD – The jurist Paulus equates one who confesses with one who is judged.[1][4]
  • 950 – The Romano-Germanic Pontifical uses it as a noun for one who has confessed.[4]
  • 1378 – It appears as a noun meaning “confession”.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Admitted, acknowledged.[1][2]
  2. Generally admitted, manifest, obvious;[1][2] ex cōnfessō, avowedly;[1][2] in cōnfessō esse, to be beyond dispute.[1][2]
  3. (active) Having confessed.[1][2]

Noun

  1. (law) One who admits a liability or a crime.[1][2]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A penitent who has confessed.[4]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A confession.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn