cruciatus

Forms

cruciātus m (genitive cruciātūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from cruciō (“to torture”) with the suffix -tus.^[2][1] The verb comes from crux (“cross, gallows”), whose further origin is unclear: de Vaan compares Celtic words for “heap, hill” such as Old Irish crúach and Germanic words for “back” such as Old Norse hryggr (“backbone”), but finds the root shape not Indo-European.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan gives Plautus as its first author.^[4] In the Curculio someone has said something cum cruciātū magnō tuō, “to your own great torment”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the act of torturing, a form of torture or execution, and Apuleius uses it of an instrument of torture, a bundle of thorns tied to a donkey's tail.^[2][5] It is severe bodily pain, as Accius' veins steeped in poison that cause foul torments, and mental anguish: Cicero speaks of being racked by the torment of fear.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “torment, torture”.^[6] In Medieval Latin, from crux, it is also a crusader.^[7][3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of torture.^[4][2][3]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of bodily pain.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of mental anguish.^[2][3]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of an instrument of torture.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Torture; an instrument of torture.^[2][1][6]
2. Severe pain, torment.^[2][1][6]
3. Mental anguish, agony.^[2]
4. (Medieval Latin) A crusader.^[7]

Related words

• cruciō
• crux
• excruciō

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes cruciātus, any pangs, natural or inflicted, from tormenta, pains caused by an instrument such as the rack, Cicero says the executioners' tortures are not worse than the torments of disease.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper