iurgium

Forms

iūrgium n (genitive iūrgiī or iūrgī); second declension^[1] It is also spelled jurgium.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is formed from iūrgō (“to quarrel, rebuke”) with the suffix -ium.^[3][2][1] De Vaan takes the verb, spelled ⟨iūrigāre⟩ in Plautus, and the noun to be based on a compound ⟨*iūrago-⟩, from ⟨*ious-ago-⟩ “bringing the oath” or the like, that is iūs (“right, law”) and agō (“to drive, conduct”); ⟨iūs⟩ goes back to Proto-Italic *jowos (“oath, law”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂ieu-os (“vital force”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Plautus,^[5] who has a daughter who never sends for her father unless there is some quarrel, and a husband who drove his wife from the door with abuse, both in the Menaechmi.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a quarrel, strife, dispute or altercation, as in Plautus' Menaechmi, and abuse, vituperation or invective, as Plautus' “at last I drove my wife from the door with abuse”.^[3][2][1] In law it is a legal proceeding, as Papinian's division of property where the case lapsed, and Wiktionary also gives a separation between husband and wife.^[3][1]

Döderlein groups contentiō, altercātiō and iūrgium as disputes carried on with passion, against disceptātiō, lītigātiō and contrōversia, which are settled quietly and in order.^[6] Church Latin glosses it “quarrel, wrangling, dispute, contention”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of quarrels and abuse.^[3][5]
• before 212 AD – Papinian of legal proceedings.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A quarrel, dispute, altercation.^[3][2][1][7]
2. Abuse, invective.^[3][1]
3. (law) A legal proceeding; a separation of husband and wife.^[3][1]

Word family

• disiūrgium
• iūrgiōsus

Related words

• iūrgātōrius
• iūrgātrīx
• iūrgō
• obiūrgō
• iūs
• rixa
• altercātiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson