consiliarius

Forms

cōnsiliārius (feminine cōnsiliāria, neuter cōnsiliārium); first/second-declension adjective^[1] As a noun it is masculine, genitive cōnsiliāriī, second declension.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cōnsilium (“counsel, deliberation”) + -ārius.^[2][1] De Vaan derives the noun from cōnsul and takes the verb cōnsulō (“to deliberate, consult”) as the oldest member of the group; it goes back to Proto-Italic *kom-se/ol-e/o- (“to consult”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *s(e)lh₁-e/o- (“to take”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adjective is first found in Plautus, who has magis cōnsiliārius … amīcus quam auxiliārius, “a friend who gives advice rather than help”;^[4][5][6] Köbler records the noun first in Cicero.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The adjective, “giving advice”, stayed rare: Gellius has it of people, Apuleius of the soul, and Seneca of a kind of lightning that warns for or against an undertaking.^[4][6][8] The noun, an adviser or one who shares a person's counsels, is common from Sisenna and Cicero on,^[2][5] who also uses it of the interpreters of a god's will.^[8] Under the Empire it was the assessor who sat with a magistrate in court,^[2][8] and a member of the emperor's council, in Suetonius, Ulpian and inscriptions.^[2][8] Ecclesiastical Latin used it for an adviser and a judge,^[9] and in Medieval Latin it was a city councillor^[10] or a member of a papal, royal, monastic or town council.^[11] Italian consigliere came through conseiller.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses the adjective.^[4][5][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the noun of a man's friends and advisers.^[5][7]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of an assessor and of the emperor's council.^[2][8][7]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian uses it of the emperor's counsellors.^[2][7]
• Medieval Latin – It means a city councillor.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Giving advice, counselling.^[2][4]

Noun

1. An adviser, counsellor; one who shares another's counsels.^[2][6]
2. An assessor who sits with a magistrate.^[2][8]
3. A member of the emperor's council.^[2][8]
4. (Medieval Latin) A city councillor; a member of a council.^[10][11]

Related words

• cōnsilium
• cōnsulō
• cōnsul

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
11. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press