contamen

Forms

contāmen n (genitive contāminis); third declension^[1][2]

Etymology

The TLL takes it to be drawn from contāminō (“to pollute, spoil”),^[2] and Köbler connects it with contingō (“to touch”).^[3] De Vaan explains the verb itself as built on an unattested noun meaning “contact”, which he reconstructs as Proto-Italic *tag(s)men (“contact”), from Proto-Indo-European *th₂g-men-, the root of tangō (“to touch”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is a late and rare word.^[2] The TLL's examples include the Carmen adversus Marcionem, which says that Christ cleanses a people “full of defilement” (contamine plenam), and Martianus Capella, who has it in the first book of his De nuptiis.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It was used in the same sense as contāminātiō, of moral and religious defilement.^[2] Lewis & Short refer it to contāgiō,^[1] and Köbler glosses it as touch, contagion and defilement.^[3] In the Code of Justinian a law threatens with torture anyone caught as a magician or as accustomed to magical contamina.^[2]

Timeline

• 5th century AD – Martianus Capella uses it of a defilement that offends the Pythian augur.^[2][3]
• 528–534 – The Code of Justinian uses the plural of magical practices.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) pollution, defilement; = contāminātiō.^[2][3]
2. (Late Latin) contagion.^[1][3]
3. (Late Latin, plural) Defiling magical practices.^[2]

Related words

• contāgiō
• contāgium

References

1. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill