contumacia

Forms

contumācia f (genitive contumāciae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin contumāx (“stubborn, defiant”) + -ia.^[2][3][1] The origin of the adjective has been disputed since antiquity: the OLD analyses it as con- with the root of temnō (“to despise”) or of tumeō (“to swell”) and the suffix ⟨-āx⟩.^[2][3][1] The grammarian Velius Longus derived it from contemnō (“to scorn”), while Nisus thought it could come from tumor (“swelling”);^[3] Isidore of Seville explained it as one who scorns.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Cicero,^[4] who writes that Torquatus was enraged by the defiance of an answer; the Thesaurus notes that it is not used by the poets.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It means proud and defiant behaviour, stubbornness or obstinacy, usually in a bad sense.^[2][5] In law it is wilful disobedience to a court's order, contumacy, as in an inscription about men who persisted in their contumacy.^[2] Döderlein distinguishes it from pertinācia: pertinacia is the obstinacy that sticks to a decision once made, contumacia the haughty assertion of one's own will against legitimate authority, the opposite of obsequium.^[6]

Church Latin glosses it “insolence, stubbornness, refusal to obey”,^[7] and in medieval law it is default, failure to appear in court.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a defiant answer.^[2][4]
• Middle Ages – Of default in court.^[8]
• c. 1200 – Borrowed into English as contumacy, partly through Old French.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Stubbornness, obstinacy, defiance, arrogance.^[2][5][1]
2. (law) Wilful disobedience to a court's order, contumacy;^[2][1] (Medieval Latin) default.^[8]

Related words

• contumāciter
• contumāx
• contumēliōsē
• contumēliōsus
• pertinācia
• English contumacy

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com