Etymologically
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dolus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈdɔ.ɫʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈdɔː.lus][1]

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

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