Etymologically
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frustratio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [fruːsˈtraː.ti.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [frusˈtrat.t͡si.o][1]

Forms

frūstrātiō f (genitive frūstrātiōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin frūstror (“to deceive, disappoint”) + -tiō.[2][3][1] The verb is from the adverb frūstrā (“in vain”), which Etymonline relates to fraus (“harm, deceit”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Plautus.[3][5] In the Amphitruo Jupiter announces: in horum familiam hodie frustrationem iniciam maxumam, “today I will bring the greatest confusion on this household”.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

In Plautus it is a deception or trick: in the Mostellaria frustrationes dare is to make a fool of someone.[6][7] From the deceiving of a hope it came to mean failure and disappointment: Varro says that farming without success and good result is a frustratio, not cultivation,[2][6] and Plancus writes to Cicero of the pain that failure caused those who had courted him.[6] Livy uses it of putting people off with pretexts and delays,[6] and the jurists of a delaying or keeping back.[6][1]

Medieval Latin in Britain kept the senses of frustrating or bringing to nothing, with a legal use for obstructing the course of justice, especially by delay, and of failure and disappointment.[8] English borrowed it in the mid-15th century in a sense of nullification, and in the 1550s as “disappointment, defeat”.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a trick or deception.[2][6][5]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of failure in farming.[2][6][5]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of deliberate delay.[6][5]
  • 533 AD – The Digest uses it for a delaying or keeping back.[6][5]
  • mid-15th century – English borrows it as frustration, first meaning nullification.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A deception, trick, prevarication; a making a fool of someone.[2][6][7]
  2. Failure, disappointment, ill success.[2][6][8]
  3. A delaying, keeping back, putting off.[6][1]
  4. (Medieval Latin, law) An obstruction of justice, especially by delay.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press