electus

Forms

ēlectus (feminine ēlecta, neuter ēlectum, comparative ēlectior, superlative ēlectissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from Latin ēligō (“to pick out, choose”).^[1][2][3] ēligō is formed from ex- and legō (“to gather, choose”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *leg-e- and Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-e/o- (“to collect”), comparing Ancient Greek λέγω (légō, “to collect, count, speak”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest example is the Rhetorica ad Herennium, of a choicer word.^[1][5]

Semantic evolution

It means picked for excellence, choice: of persons, especially soldiers, as Catullus's chosen young men and the flower of the unmarried girls, and of things, as Catullus mocks the choicest writings of the worst poet.^[1] In Christian Latin it is used of the elect, those chosen by God and saved in eternity, and the neuter plural ēlecta are choice morsels.^[6] As a noun, ēlectus is in medieval texts one of God's chosen, a person chosen to be baptized soon, a co-juror named by the principal juror, a title of certain city officials, and a bishop-elect.^[7]

Timeline

• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium of a choicer word.^[1][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it.^[5]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of chosen youths and of choice writings.^[1][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Picked, choice, select, of fine quality.^[1][3][6]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Chosen by God, elect.^[6][7]

Noun

1. (Ecclesiastical Latin) One of the elect; a candidate chosen for baptism.^[7][6]
2. (Medieval Latin) A co-juror chosen by the principal juror; a city official; a bishop-elect.^[7]

Usage notes

A rare noun ēlectus, -ūs, “choice, selection”, made from ēligō, appears once in Ovid, of the choice of a death, and again in Hilary of Poitiers and Paulinus of Nola.^[1][3][2]

References

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