Etymologically
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honoratus

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Forms

honōrātus (feminine honōrāta, neuter honōrātum; comparative honōrātior, superlative honōrātissimus); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from Latin honōrō (“to honour”).[1][2][3] That verb comes from honōs (“honour, office”), for which de Vaan knows no further etymology.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus.[3] In the OLD's earliest quotation Plautus calls a family the one most powerful and honoured there.[1]

Semantic evolution

It is honoured, respected, and of things bringing honour: Livy has the senate addressing certain men in the most honourable decree it could.[1] Of a magistrate or former magistrate it is distinguished by public office: Cicero thinks a man who gained office by the votes of the senate and people both honourable and honoured.[1] Ammianus uses it of higher military grades.[5] Niermeyer records medieval senses: holding a high office or benefice, or a court office, and of land held as a tenure fit for a man of rank; as a noun, a person of high social standing.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of an honoured family.[1][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a man distinguished by office.[1][3]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of an honourable decree.[1][3]
  • c. 390 AD – Ammianus of military grades.[5][3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Honoured, respected; bringing honour, honourable.[1][2]
  2. Distinguished by public office.[1][6]
  3. (Medieval Latin) Holding a court office; of land, held as a tenure fit for a man of rank.[6]
  4. (Medieval Latin) As a noun, a person of high rank.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill