excommunico

Forms

excommūnicō (present infinitive excommūnicāre); first conjugation, no perfect or supine stems^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + commūnicō (“to share, take part in communion”), literally “to put out of the community”.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL calls it a Christian word, found from Ambrose on, then in Jerome and often from Augustine on; it means to exclude someone from the communion of the Church, above all from the sacrament of the altar.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Augustine sets it beside excludere and anathematizare and against reconciliare.^[2] Lewis and Short cite Jerome's work against Rufinus and Hilary's phrase aliquem excommunicatum habere.^[3] In Medieval Latin it remained the technical term for laying someone under the ban of the Church, and widened to mean to exclude, to curse, to forbid under threat of anathema and to condemn.^[6] English took it from the Late Latin participle in the early 15th century.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose is the first author the TLL records with the word.^[2][5]
• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it in his commentary on Titus and against Rufinus.^[2][3][5]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it often, of removal from the sacraments of the altar.^[2][5]
• early 15th century – English borrows it as excommunicate.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To excommunicate, exclude from the communion of the Church.^[2][3][7]
2. (Medieval Latin) To exclude, shut out.^[6]
3. (Medieval Latin) To curse; to forbid under threat of anathema.^[6]
4. (Medieval Latin) To condemn.^[6]

Word family

• excommūnicātiō

Related words

• English excommunicate

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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 Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson