Etymologically
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exsilium

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛksˈsɪ.li.ũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eksˈsiː.li.um][1]

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]

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