exauctoro

Forms

exauctōrō (present infinitive exauctōrāre, perfect active exauctōrāvī, supine exauctōrātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- (“out of”) + auctōrō (“to bind oneself by contract, hire oneself out”).^[2][3][1] The TLL explains it as releasing someone from the engagement (auctōrāmentum), the oath or the office.^[3] The base auctōrō is formed from auctor,^[2][1] a derivative of augeō (“to increase”).^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Livy on,^[3][5] who uses it for soldiers released from service: an army of volunteers that had served loyally under Gracchus left the standards after his death velut exauctōrātus, “as if discharged”.^[3][6] The TLL also lists a passage of Lucilius whose reading is doubtful.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word was a military term for releasing soldiers from their oath.^[7][8] L&S explains that this release could come before the end of the full term of service, as an honourable discharge, or as a punishment.^[7] Tacitus sets those who are to receive their full discharge after twenty years against those with sixteen years who are exauctōrātī but kept on under a standard.^[3][7] In Suetonius and the jurists it means to dismiss a soldier in disgrace, to cashier;^[3][7] Ulpian glosses it as taking away the soldier's military insignia.^[3][7] Livy also has the reflexive sē exauctōrāre of soldiers who free themselves from service at will.^[8][7]

Seneca uses the participle figuratively of a man set free from every constraint,^[6] Macrobius calls words that later ages had discarded verba exauctōrāta,^[7][6] and Sidonius uses it for removing someone from an office.^[6] In medieval Latin it meant to strip a person of rank or dignity, to degrade, and, of things, to annul, invalidate or reject; the Annals of Fulda, under the year 861, use it of men deprived of their public honours by the king.^[9]

Timeline

• 59 BC–AD 17 – Livy uses it for discharging soldiers.^[3][5]
• 4 BC–AD 65 – Seneca uses exauctōrātus figuratively for one freed from constraints.^[6][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it for dismissing soldiers in disgrace.^[7][5]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian explains it as taking away a soldier's insignia.^[3][5]
• 1st half of the 5th century AD – Macrobius calls obsolete words exauctōrāta.^[7][5]
• c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius uses it for removal from an office.^[6][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To discharge from military service, release from the oath.^[2][7]
2. To dismiss (a soldier) in disgrace, cashier.^[2][7]
3. (reflexive, of soldiers) To leave the service of one's own accord.^[8][7]
4. (figurative) To discard;^[7][6] verba exauctōrāta, obsolete words.^[7][6]
5. To remove from an office.^[6]
6. (Medieval Latin) To deprive of rank, degrade; of things, to annul or reject.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften