Etymologically
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iugulatio

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Forms

iugulātiō f (genitive iugulātiōnis); third declension[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin iugulō (“to cut the throat, kill”) + -tiō.[1][3] That verb is formed from iugulum (“throat”), which de Vaan places with iugum (“yoke”) and iungō (“to join”): it probably meant a small yoke or connecting part before it came to mean the throat.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is the writer of the Bellum Hispaniense,[3][5] dated by Köbler to after 44 BC;[6] he uses it of a massacre of the townspeople, iugulātiōne oppidānōrum factā.[3][7]

Semantic evolution

It means a slaughter or massacre, the killing of people by cutting their throats.[1][5] After the Bellum Hispaniense it appears in the Old Latin Bible (the Itala), where the Vulgate has interfectiō in the same verse, and in Tertullian.[3]

Medieval British chroniclers used it of the slaying of nobles and of a murder that an heir wished to avenge.[8]

Timeline

  • after 44 BC – The Bellum Hispaniense uses it of massacres.[3][6]
  • c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it.[3][6]
  • after 220 AD – The Old Latin Bible uses it in Isaiah.[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Slaughter, massacre; a killing by cutting the throat.[1][5][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  3. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  8. ^ 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