Etymologically
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contumacia

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɔn.tʊˈmaː.ki.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kon.tuˈmaː.t͡ʃi.a][1]

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]

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