damnum

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈdam.nũː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈdam.num]^[1]

Forms

damnum n (genitive damnī); second declension^[1] Manuscripts and late texts often write dampnum.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *dapno-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *dh₂p-no- (“expense, investment”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *deh₂p- (“to sacrifice, apportion”) of daps “sacrificial feast”; the OLD and Wiktionary compare Ancient Greek δαπάνη (dapánē, “expense”) and Old Norse tapa (“to lose”).^[3][1][2][4] Lewis and Short and Georges report Ritschl's rival explanation, an old participle *daminum of dare, “what is given” as a penalty, which Lewis and Short prefer.^[5][6] Varro derived it from dēmptiō, a taking away, and Isidore from the diminishing of a thing.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is attested in the Twelve Tables,^[3][4] which make a man pay double the fruits as a penalty;^[2] Plautus uses it of financial loss brought on husbands by dowried wives.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense was financial loss, in the phrases damnum dare, to cause loss, and damnum facere, to incur it, and in the law of damnum iniuria, loss unlawfully caused to another's slaves or beasts, and damnum infectum, loss apprehended.^[2][5] It extended to any loss or detriment, to the waning of the moon, to military losses and the loss of faculties, and by metonymy to the person or thing that causes loss or that is lost.^[2] From the start it also meant a sum paid in restitution or as a penalty, a fine, and hence other forfeits.^[2]

Medieval Latin used it for any penalty, for a place damaged by straying animals, for costs and for interest on capital, and Köbler adds damnation.^[8][4] It survives as Italian danno, Spanish daño, Portuguese dano, Romanian daună and obsolete French dam,^[1] and English law keeps damnum.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 450 BC – The Twelve Tables use it of a penalty.^[2][3][4]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of financial loss.^[2][4]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of loss and in damnas esto.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the action for damnum iniuria and of loss to letters.^[2][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of military losses.^[2][4]
• 643 – The Edict of Rothari has the medieval sense.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Financial loss, as in damnum dare, to cause loss, and damnum iniuria, loss unlawfully caused.^[2][5]
2. Loss or detriment of any kind; the waning of the moon; military losses.^[2]
3. A cause of loss; a lost possession.^[2]
4. A sum paid in restitution, a fine; a forfeit.^[2][5]
5. (Medieval Latin) Any penalty; a place damaged by animals; costs; interest; damnation.^[8][4]

Word family

• damnifico
• damnificus
• damnigerulus
• damnō
• damnōsus
• indemnis
• *damnāticum

Related words

• daps
• English damage
• English damn
• English condemn

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes damnum, a loss incurred, opposed to lucrum, from dētrīmentum, a loss endured, and iactūra, a voluntary loss or sacrifice.^[9] The verb damnāre “to condemn” and the formula damnas esto “let him be condemned to pay” derive from it.^[3]

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 l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e 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 d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper