factiosus

Forms

factiōsus (feminine factiōsa, neuter factiōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin factiō (“faction, party”) + -ōsus.^[2][1][3] factiō is a noun of faciō “to make, do”, which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *fak-i- and Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁-k- (“to make”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put”).^[4] Varro explained it from doing things together, as he explained axitiōsae from acting together, and Festus says both were used of people doing something jointly.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[5] who has busy tongues and idle hands, and a man described as rich and influential.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is first busy or active, then having a powerful following or connections, influential.^[2] From that it is belonging to or forming a faction, factious or turbulent: Cicero writes of men who become bribers and party men to gain the greatest power.^[2][6] Lewis & Short call it classical and give sēditiōsus, turbulentus and praepotēns as related words.^[6] Church Latin glosses it quarrelsome,^[7] and in Medieval Latin it is a person engaged in a feud.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a busy tongue and an influential man.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of factious men seeking power.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Busy, active.^[2]
2. Having a powerful following, influential.^[2][6]
3. Factious, seditious, turbulent; quarrelsome.^[2][6][1][7]
4. (Medieval Latin, as a noun) One engaged in a feud.^[8]

Related words

• factiō
• sēditiōsus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e 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 Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill