expilatio

Forms

expīlātiō f (genitive expīlātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin expīlō (“to rob, plunder”) + -tiō,^[2][1][3] the verb being a compound of ex- and pīlō (“to rob”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has it first,^[4] in the Verrines, of the plundering of Asia and of the plundering of temples.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Cicero also uses it in On Duties of the plundering and pillage of allies, paired with direptio.^[6][3] Lewis and Short call it rare but classical.^[6] Apuleius has a band of robbers drawn up at a house's doors as punctually as if bound by a summons to plunder it, Symmachus speaks of documents of rank taken by a theft within the household, and Sulpicius Severus jokingly accuses a correspondent of theft.^[3][7]

In Roman law the jurist Saturninus distinguishes expīlātiōnēs from ordinary thefts when weighing how grave an offence is.^[3] Köbler records it in capitularies, in the acts of church councils and in a text of Wolfher of about 1035.^[4]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in the Verrines and On Duties.^[3][6][4]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of a robbery.^[3][7][4]
• c. 340–402 AD – Symmachus uses it of a theft within a household.^[3][4]
• c. 363–c. 420 AD – Sulpicius Severus uses it jokingly.^[3][4]
• c. 1035 – Wolfher uses it.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Plundering, spoliation, pillage.^[2][6]
2. (law) Robbery, as distinct from simple theft.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier