iniurio

Forms

iniūriō (present infinitive iniūriāre, perfect active iniūriāvī, supine iniūriātum); first conjugation; also deponent iniūrior (iniūriārī, iniūriātus sum)^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin iniūria (“injustice, wrong, insult”).^[3][4] The TLL compares it with Ancient Greek ὑβρίζω (hubrízō, “to treat with insolence”), the verb it usually renders in translations from Greek.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from the Old Latin Bible translations (the Itala) onwards, mostly in versions made from Greek, where it renders ὑβρίζω; outside Christian writers it is rare.^[3] Georges cites it from a fragment of Lucilius, but Marx's edition reads inpuratum there, and the TLL counts the passage as a false reading.^[4][3] The earliest dated author cited for it is Hilary of Poitiers, with the sense “to outrage, insult”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In Late Latin it meant to treat someone with injustice or violence, to wrong or insult them,^[3][4] and it was used both as an active verb and as a deponent, iniūrior.^[1][2] Cassiodorus and Gregory the Great have it.^[4][1]

Medieval Latin used it widely in law and church documents: to treat someone unjustly, to abuse them with words or violence, to harass or molest them, and with a thing as object to break or violate (a right, a privilege); used without an object it meant to do wrong.^[6] Hungarian charters have the active verb with an accusative and the deponent with a dative, “to do injustice to someone”,^[7] and Polish sources also use it for diminishing or infringing a right or revenue.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 315–367/368 AD – Hilary of Poitiers uses it for “to outrage”.^[2][5]
• c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus uses it in his Variae.^[4][5]
• 540–604 AD – Gregory the Great has it in his letters.^[1][5]
• 1269 – A Hungarian charter speaks of a church “wronged” by a chapter.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To treat unjustly, to wrong, to injure.^[3][4][6]
2. To insult or outrage with words or violence.^[1][2][6]
3. (Medieval Latin) To harass or molest someone.^[6]
4. (Medieval Latin) With a thing as object: to violate or infringe (a right, a privilege, a revenue).^[6][8]
5. (Medieval Latin) Without an object, or as a deponent with the dative: to do wrong, to do injustice to someone.^[6][7]

Related words

• iniūria

References

1. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
2. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
8. ^ a b Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl