dolus

Forms

dolus m (genitive dolī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

De Vaan reconstructs inherited from Proto-Italic *dolo- (“trick”).^[2] Given doleō (“to feel pain”) and dolor (“pain”), he thinks it cannot be ruled out that it is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *dolh₁-o- (“pain, what pains”), with the sense shifting to “deceit, malice”.^[2][1] It matches Ancient Greek δόλος (dólos, “bait, trick”),^[2][3] from which Pokorny's dictionary derives it as a loan.^[2][4] Others compare Proto-Germanic *tala- (“reason, account”).^[2] Oscan dolom (“intention, ruse”) is probably borrowed from Latin.^[2] The adverb sēdulō (“sincerely”) continues ⟨*sē dolōd⟩, “without guile”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from the Law of the Twelve Tables.^[2][4] An early law of the kings has sī quī hominem … dolō sciēns mortī duit, “if anyone knowingly and with intent puts a man to death”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In law dolus is guilty intention, the deliberate doing of an unlawful act, set against culpa, negligence; inscriptions abbreviate dolus malus as d. m..^[3][5] In general use it is trickery, treachery, cunning (Caesar: quī per dolum … petītā pāce ultrō bellum intulissent, “who had treacherously sued for peace and then attacked of their own accord”), and a particular trick or stratagem (Plautus: dolum … hunc prōtulērunt, “they devised this trick”).^[3][1]

Church Latin glosses it “fraud, deceit, guile, craft”,^[6] and in Medieval Latin it is also “wrong, injury”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 450 BC – The Law of the Twelve Tables uses it.^[2][4]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a trick.^[3][4]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius: per dolum, “by trickery”.^[3][4]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar: quī per dolum … petītā pāce.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law) Guilty intention, malice;^[3][1][5] dolus malus: fraud with intent.^[3][5]
2. deception, trickery, guile, treachery.^[3][1][6]
3. A trick, stratagem, trap.^[3][1]
4. (Medieval Latin) Wrong, injury.^[7]

Word family

• dolōsus
• subdolus

Related words

• dolōsē
• dolōsitās
• doleō
• dolor
• sēdulō

Usage notes

In Late Latin dolus is also a form of dolor, “pain, grief”;^[1] Köbler records it from Commodian and inscriptions.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill