Etymologically
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exonero

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛkˈsɔ.nɛ.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eɡˈzɔː.ne.ro][1]

Forms

exonerō (present infinitive exonerāre, perfect active exonerāvī, supine exonerātum); first conjugation[1] Manuscripts often spell it exhonero and confuse it with exhonōrō.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- (“out, off”) + onerō (“to load”).[3][2][1] onerō is from onus (“load”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *ones- and Proto-Indo-European *h₃en-os (“load”).[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is Plautus' Stichus: “are we unloading the ship today, brother?”[3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short note that it is not frequent before Augustus and not found at all in Cicero or Caesar.[6] It means to discharge the contents of, unload, and of the body to relieve it by excretion, as in Celsus and Pliny the Elder.[3][6] It also means to relieve of a burden, as Livy's kingdom relieved of an overgrown population, to unburden one's conscience, and to get rid of a burden or discharge an obligation or expense.[3] Church Latin glosses it to free from a burden, unload, relieve.[7] English exonerate (1520s) first meant to unload; in the 1570s it came to mean to clear of blame.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of unloading a ship.[3][8]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of relieving a kingdom of its crowd.[3][8]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus of relieving the body.[3][8]
  • 1520s – English exonerate, to unload.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To unload, discharge; to relieve the body.[3][6][1]
  2. To relieve of a burden, unburden, exonerate.[3][7][1]
  3. To get rid of a burden; to discharge an obligation or expense.[3]

Word family

  • exonerātiō
  • exonerātor

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de