exsilium

Forms

exsilium n (genitive exsiliī or exsilī); second declension^[1] It is also spelled exilium.^[2][3][1] Seneca has a dative and ablative plural exilīs.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from exsul (“an exile”) with the suffix -ium.^[2][1][4] The origin of ⟨exsul⟩ is disputed: de Vaan lists a verb ⟨*ex-sulere⟩ “to take out”, with the root of cōnsul, so “one taken out”; a link with ambulō (“to walk”), “one who walks out”; and the root of Ancient Greek ἐλαύνω (elaúnō, “to drive”), “one driven out”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus is its first author in the OLD, with tē in exsilium īre hinc oportet, “you must go into exile from here”, in the Persa;^[2][4] Köbler gives Terence.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It is banishment or exile, and in phrases in exsilium īre, dē exsiliō redīre;^[2][3] Cicero calls exile “not a punishment but a refuge and haven from punishment”.^[2][3] It is also the place of exile, as Cicero's “you made every place you went to most like a place of exile”, and in the plural the exiles themselves.^[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “exile, banishment”, and Köbler records it in the early medieval law codes.^[6][4] English exile comes from it through Old French, from about 1300.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of going into exile.^[2][4]
• 190–159 BC – Terence.^[4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of exile as a refuge and of a place of exile.^[2][3][4]
• c. 1300 – English exile.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Exile, banishment.^[2][3][1][6]
2. A place of exile; a retreat.^[2][1]
3. (plural) Exiles.^[1]

Related words

• exsul
• relēgātiō
• fuga
• English exile

Usage notes

The TLL also records a rare exsilium “a leap”, from exsiliō.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften