fiduciarius

Forms

fīdūciārius (feminine fīdūciāria, neuter fīdūciārium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin fīdūcia + -ārius,^[2][3] from fīdūcia (“trust; a pledge”), which belongs with fīdō (“to trust”).^[4][5] That verb goes back to Proto-Italic *feiþe- and Proto-Indo-European *bheidh-e/o- (“to trust”).^[4] The noun “trustee” is the adjective used as a noun.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Caesar uses it in the Civil War of the duty of a legate who holds a command in trust.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It was a technical term of law for what is held in trust and for the person who holds it:^[7][8] the jurist Gaius speaks of a tutor fiduciarius and of a fiduciaria coemptio, a sham purchase, and the Digest of a heres fiduciarius, an heir who receives property on trust.^[2][7][9] Outside law it meant “entrusted, held for another”, as when Livy has a city handed over to Nabis as if in trust.^[2] An inscription uses it as a noun, “trustee”.^[2]

In a medieval charter it describes the executor of a will.^[10] English fiduciary comes from it in the 1640s.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of a command held in trust.^[2][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of a city given as if in trust.^[2][6]
• 140–180 AD – Gaius uses it of a guardian and of a sham purchase.^[2][6]
• 1159 – A charter of the bishop of Würzburg uses it of the executor of a will.^[10]
• 1640s – English borrows it as fiduciary.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (law) Holding something on trust, fiduciary.^[2][7]
2. Of or proper to a trustee.^[2]
3. Held on trust, entrusted.^[2][1]
4. (Medieval Latin) Charged with carrying out a will or trust.^[10]

Noun

1. A trustee.^[2]

Related words

• fīdūcia
• English fiduciary

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b 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 d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften