Etymologically
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detrimentum

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Forms

dētrīmentum n (genitive dētrīmentī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from dēterō (“to rub away, wear down”) with the suffix -mentum: “a rubbing off”.[2][3][4] The verb is dē- with terō (“to rub”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *tera- and Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub”), cognate with Ancient Greek τείρω (teírō, “to wear out, distress”).[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Terence.[5] In the Hecyra: dē tē peccandō dētrīmentī nīl fierī potest, “no harm can come from your doing wrong”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Its literal sense, a rubbing off, survives in Apuleius, of a file.[3] It is a reduction, as Seneca's earth that does not feel the loss of the rivers flowing out, and a lessening of size or value.[2] Above all it is harm, damage or loss, a money loss (Lucilius), and in war a reverse or defeat, which Caesar's soldiers want to make good.[2] The formula of the senate's emergency decree was videant cōnsulēs nē quid rēs pūblica dētrīmentī capiat, “let the consuls see that the state comes to no harm”.[7]

Church Latin glosses it “loss, detriment, damage”.[8] English detriment (early 15th century) comes from it, directly or through Old French.[4]

Timeline

  • 190–159 BC – Terence of harm.[2][5]
  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius of a money loss.[2][5]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of a military reverse.[2][5]
  • early 15th century – English detriment.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A rubbing off; a reduction, lessening.[3][2]
  2. Harm, damage, loss, detriment.[2][1][8]
  3. A military reverse, defeat.[2][1]

Word family

  • dētrīmentōsus
  • dēterō
  • terō
  • English detriment

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes damnum, a loss one causes oneself, opposed to lucrum, from dētrīmentum, a loss one suffers, opposed to ēmolumentum, and iactūra, a loss accepted to escape a greater one; so damnum could never replace dētrīmentum in the emergency formula.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson