Etymology and origin of the Latin word cooperativus
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Derivation
- First attested
- first quarter of the 6th century AD, Boethius
- Ultimate origin
- Latin cooperor
Etymology tree
Forms
cooperātīvus (feminine cooperātīva, neuter cooperātīvum); first/second-declension adjective[1]
Etymology
It is from Latin cooperor (“to work together”) + -īvus.[2][3]
Earliest recorded meaning
Its first author is Boethius, in his translation of Aristotle's Topics, of something that helps another in some way.[2][4][3]
Semantic evolution
It is rare until the scholastics.[2][5] Albertus Magnus, commenting on the same passage of the Topics, where Aristotle has Ancient Greek συνεργόν (sunergón), explains it as helping, as it were propping up,[5] and uses it of a kind of knowledge that works together with experience;[5] Stephen Langton, Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon use it in their philosophical writings.[6] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means cooperative.[7] English cooperative, formed on the Latin stem of ⟨cooperātus⟩, is recorded from about 1600.[8]
Timeline
- first quarter of the 6th century AD – Boethius uses it in his translation of the Topics.[2][3]
- c. 1600 – English cooperative is recorded.[8]
Meanings
Adjective
Related words
References
- ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
- ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ 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
- ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
- ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum / Slovník středověké latiny v českých zemích (1977–), Prague: Academia; electronic version, Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Borrowed into
- English cooperative
Cite this entry
“Cooperativus.” Etymologically, 24 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/cooperativus. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.
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