emeritus

Forms

ēmeritus (feminine ēmerita, neuter ēmeritum); first/second-declension adjective; as a noun, ēmeritus m (genitive ēmeritī); second declension^[1][2]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the perfect participle from Latin ēmereō (“to serve out, earn”), also of the deponent ēmereor.^[1][2][3] The verb is from Latin ex- + mereō (“to earn”),^[1] and de Vaan records it from Plautus on.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Plautus, where a single campaign has been served out (ēmeritum est stīpendium).^[1][5]

Semantic evolution

With stīpendia or annī it describes military service completed, as in Sallust, Cicero, Livy and Ovid.^[6][1] Valerius Maximus uses the deponent participle of a soldier who had served out his campaigns.^[1][2] As a noun, ēmeritus is a soldier who has finished his time, a veteran, in Lucan, Tacitus, Suetonius and inscriptions.^[1][6]

In poetry it is transferred to whatever has finished its work: Ovid has the countryman hang up his ēmeritum arātrum, the plough that has done its service, Lucan ships drawn back from the docks, Pliny the Elder a spent vine shoot and Statius old hounds.^[1][2] Of time it means completed, as Ovid's year that has run its courses.^[1][2]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it describes a retired person, and the neuter ēmeritum is a pension.^[7] The medieval noun still meant a veteran soldier.^[5] Italian emerito continues it.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a campaign served out.^[1][5]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust writes of completed terms of service.^[6][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a plough that has done its work.^[1][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it as a noun for veterans.^[1][6][5]
• 959–1014 – The medieval noun for a veteran soldier appears in Nadda.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having served out one's time (in the army); of service, completed.^[1][6]
2. (transferred) Having finished its work, worn out by service, past use.^[1][2]
3. Of a period, completed, run out.^[1][2]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) retired; deserving.^[7]

Noun

1. A soldier who has served his time, a veteran.^[1][6][2]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A retired person;^[7] ēmeritum, a pension.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
3. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
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 e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson