Etymologically
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iurgium

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈjuːr.ɡi.ũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈjur.d͡ʒi.um][1]

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
  • 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