contaminatio

Forms

contāminātiō f (genitive contāminātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin contāminō (“to pollute, spoil”) + -tiō.^[2][3][1] The verb originally meant “to come into contact with” and, in de Vaan's view, is most likely built on a noun *tāmen “contact”, which goes back to Proto-Italic *tag(s)men (“contact”) and Proto-Indo-European *th₂g-men-, the root of tangō (“to touch”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest dated instance is in the acts of the Secular Games of Septimius Severus (AD 204), where a place is to be kept free of all defilement.^[3] Soon after, Ulpian uses it in the Digest of a husband who does not resent the defilement of his marriage by an adulterous wife.^[3][5][6]

Semantic evolution

The word is post-classical.^[5] It meant ritual and moral defilement or pollution,^[2][3] a sense much used by Christian writers such as Arnobius and Firmicus Maternus,^[3] and the Old Latin Bible uses it for the pollution of sacrifices.^[3] Julius Obsequens applies it to a disease of the belly.^[5][7][8]

Medieval Latin kept both the physical sense, soiling or infection, with dirt or a discharge by metonymy, and the spiritual one.^[9][10] English took it as contamination in the 15th century, first in the sense “infection”.^[11]

Timeline

• AD 204 – The acts of the Secular Games of Septimius Severus speak of keeping a place free of all defilement.^[3]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian uses it of the defilement of a marriage by adultery.^[3][12]
• 297–310 AD – Arnobius uses it often of moral and religious defilement.^[3][12]
• 343/350 AD – Firmicus Maternus writes of a deity appeased by the pollution of the body.^[3][12]
• early 15th century – English borrows it as contamination, “infection”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Defilement, pollution, moral or ritual.^[2][5][3]
2. Corruption, disease.^[5][7]
3. (Medieval Latin) Physical soiling or infection; dirt or a discharge.^[9][10]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Contamination.^[13]

Related words

• contāminō
• English contamination

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
9. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
13. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson