Etymologically
Log in

consortium

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 06:56. This address is a permanent link to this version.
← Previous version Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kõːˈsɔr.ti.ũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [konˈsɔr.t͡si.um][1]

Forms

cōnsortium n (genitive cōnsortiī or cōnsortī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cōnsors (“sharing, partner”) + -ium.[2][3][4] That adjective joins con- and sors (“lot, share”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *sorti- (“joining, joint”) and Proto-Indo-European *sr-ti-, from the root of serō2 (“to join”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in Livy, who writes of a share and partnership in the commonwealth.[3][2] Lewis & Short call it post-Augustan.[6]

Semantic evolution

It is the sharing of property, as between brothers in the Digest, and a community of life, as Seneca writes of being taken into partnership.[2][6] With a genitive it is a sharing or partnership in something, and Tacitus uses it by metonymy for the wife who shares prosperity and adversity.[2] Columella has it of close association, and it is also a conjunction of stars.[2] The TLL notes that Christians were fond of the word.[3] Stelten gives “company, partnership, union, fellowship”,[7] and in Medieval Latin it is joint ownership, living together, the dependants of one lord, and the community of a town's burgesses.[8]

Timeline

  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of partnership in the state.[3][2][4]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca, of a community of life.[2][4]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of a wife as a partner.[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Sharing of property; community of life.[2][6]
  2. A sharing, partnership, fellowship; a partner.[2][6][1]
  3. A close connection, association; a conjunction of stars.[2]
  4. (Medieval Latin) Joint ownership; the dependants of a lord; the community of a town.[8]

Word family

  • consortālis
  • cōnsortiō

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill