criminatio

Forms

crīminātiō f (genitive crīminātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin crīminor (“to accuse”) + -tiō.^[2][3][1] crīminor is made from crīmen (“charge, accusation”), which de Vaan lists among the derivatives of cernō (“to sift, decide”), from Proto-Indo-European *krei- (“to sift, separate”), with a noun Proto-Indo-European *krei-mn; the OLD calls the origin doubtful but suggests the same root.^[4][2] Wiktionary compares Ancient Greek κρῖμα (krîma, “judgement”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Rhetorica ad Herennium has it first.^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

It is the making of accusations, a charge, and often a malicious one or calumny: Cicero complains of an opponent who uses slander against him in his absence, and asks another what his charge is, that Roscius had settled with Flavius.^[2][6] The TLL glosses it calumny, objection, malicious accusation, and the rhetorician Julius Rufinianus equates it with Ancient Greek διαβολή (diabolḗ, “slander”).^[3] It continues in the Bible, the councils and the formularies.^[5]

Timeline

• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of slander and of a charge.^[6][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An accusation, charge, complaint.^[2][6][1]
2. Calumny, slander, malicious accusation.^[6][3][1]

Word family

• incrīminātiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press