eloquium

Forms

ēloquium n (genitive ēloquiī or ēloquī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ēloquor (“to speak out”) + -ium.^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces loquor to Proto-Italic *(t)lokʷ-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *tlokʷ- (“to talk”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Virgil,^[5] in a taunt addressed to Drances, tona eloquio, “thunder with your eloquence”.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short say that the Augustan poets, and prose writers who imitated them, used it for ēloquentia, “eloquence”: Horace, Virgil, Ovid, Velleius and Pliny the Elder.^[6] It is also speech or a way of speaking: Mela writes of mute peoples for whom a nod serves as speech.^[2] The invective against Sallust falsely ascribed to Cicero has it of a pronouncement by Appius Claudius as censor.^[2] In Late Latin it is a declaration or communication.^[6] Church Latin has “word, speech”,^[7] and in medieval Latin it is a language, spoken words, divīnum ēloquium “the Scriptures”, and a promise or prophecy.^[8]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil, “thunder with your eloquence”.^[2][6][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace, of eloquence.^[6][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of eloquence.^[6][5]
• Medieval Latin – A language;^[8] divīnum ēloquium, the Scriptures.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Speech, utterance; manner of speaking, diction.^[2][1][7]
2. A particular pronouncement.^[2]
3. Eloquence.^[2][6][1]
4. (Late Latin) A declaration, communication.^[6]
5. (Medieval Latin) A language;^[8] divīnum ēloquium, the Scriptures; a promise, prophecy.^[8]

Related words

• ēloquor
• ēloquentia
• loquor
• colloquium

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d e Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill