Etymologically
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culpabilis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kʊɫˈpaː.bɪ.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kulˈpaː.bi.lis][1]

Forms

culpābilis (neuter culpābile, comparative culpabilius, adverb culpābiliter); third-declension two-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin culpō (“to blame”) + -bilis,[2] the verb from culpa (“fault, blame”).[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Apuleius on;[4] in the Apology he contrasts what is blameworthy with what is praiseworthy.[5]

Semantic evolution

It is a post-classical word for what deserves censure.[2][5] Arnobius applies it to an opinion about the gods, and Tertullian has the comparative, culpabilius “more blameworthy”;[5] Cassiodorus and later writers construe it with a genitive of the fault.[4] The adverb is culpabiliter.[5][1]

Medieval Latin added “guilty” and “liable to such and such a penalty”,[6] and it is frequent in the barbarian law codes and capitularies.[7] English borrowed it in the late 13th century, through Old French, as coupable, later culpable.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it in the Apology.[5][4][7]
  • c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses the comparative.[5][7]
  • 3rd quarter of the 8th century – The Lex Salica uses it.[7]
  • late 13th century – English borrows it from Old French.[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Deserving censure, blameworthy, reprehensible.[2][5][9]
  2. (Medieval Latin) Guilty.[6][9]
  3. (Medieval Latin) Liable to a given penalty.[6]

Word family

  • inculpābilis

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson