Etymologically
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criminor

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkriː.mɪ.nɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkriː.mi.nor][1]

Forms

crīminor (present infinitive crīminārī, perfect active crīminātus sum); first conjugation, deponent[1] Ennius and Plautus have an active crīminō.[2] Hyginus uses the perfect participle in a passive sense.[2]

Etymology

It is a denominative verb from Latin crīmen (“accusation, charge”).[2][3][1] De Vaan derives crīmen from the verb cernō (“to sift, separate, decide”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *krin-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *krey- (“to sift, separate”); the OLD calls this derivation doubtful.[4][2] Wiktionary compares Ancient Greek κρῖμα (krîma, “judgement”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[4] who has “has he accused me?”[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to bring charges against a person, often falsely or maliciously, as in Terence's “I was afraid she would accuse me to you”.[2][5] With a thing as object it is to complain of a fault, as in Cicero's speeches in which an opponent invidiously denounced his power, and to allege something as a charge.[2] Döderlein distinguishes the verbs of accusing: arguere is the most general, accūsāre is to prosecute in a criminal court, and crīminārī is an accusation made with hostile intent, in a slanderous spirit.[6] The grammarian Priscian lists it among the verbs that early writers used with an active ending for the passive or the reverse.[3]

Church Latin glosses it “accuse”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of accusing someone.[2][4][8]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of accusing someone to another.[5][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of denouncing a man's power.[2][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To accuse, denounce, often falsely; to slander.[2][5][1]
  2. To complain of a fault; to allege as a charge.[2][5][1]

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 i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c 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 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de