elogium

Pronunciation

• Classical: [eːˈɫɔ.ɡi.ũː]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [eˈlɔː.d͡ʒi.um]^[1]

Forms

ēlogium n (genitive ēlogiī or ēlogī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is apparently borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐλεγεῖον (elegeîon, “elegiac distich, verse inscription”),^[2][3][4][1] reshaped under the influence of λόγος (lógos, “word”) or of ēloquium,^[2] or reanalysed as ē- (“out”) and λόγιον (lógion, “oracle”).^[1] Köbler takes the Greek word from ἔλεγος (élegos, “lament”), probably of Asia Minor origin.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short and Georges cite Plautus for an inscription on a door, a lampoon,^[5][6] while the OLD's first example is Cato, who says that the deed of Leonidas was honoured with statues, inscriptions and histories.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Cicero uses it of an elegiac couplet of Solon, which suits its Greek source,^[2][7] but its main Classical sense is an inscription on a tomb, also on statues of ancestors and on dedications.^[2][5] In law it is a clause added to a will, especially one giving the reason for disinheriting someone, as in Cicero, Seneca the Elder and Petronius,^[2][6] and in the Code of Justinian ultima ēlogia is the last will.^[5][6] Under the Empire it is also the written report that went with a prisoner to the magistrate, naming the charges, and so a sentence of condemnation in Ammianus.^[2][6][7]

In medieval Latin it means a charge or indictment, a verdict and a last will.^[8] Medieval writers in Britain also use it of a poem or elegy, an utterance and a stigma,^[9] and Ecclesiastical Latin has the sense “praise”.^[10] It lives on in French éloge and Italian elogio, and English borrowed it as elogium.^[1][7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of an inscription on a door.^[5][6][4]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of inscriptions honouring Leonidas.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of epitaphs and of a clause in a will.^[2][4]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of the report on a prisoner.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. An elegiac distich; a short saying.^[2][5]
2. An inscription on a tomb, an epitaph; any inscription.^[2][5]
3. A clause added to a will, a codicil, especially one disinheriting someone.^[2][5]
4. A written report on a prisoner sent before a magistrate; a sentence of condemnation.^[2][7]
5. (Medieval Latin) An indictment; a verdict; a last will.^[8]
6. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Praise, eulogy.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
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 d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson