largitio

Forms

largītiō f (genitive largītiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin largior (“to give freely”) + -tiō.^[2][3][1] The verb comes from largus (“abundant, generous”), whose origin is uncertain: de Vaan doubts the old derivation from a stem for “fat”, since it is not sure that its long ⟨ā⟩ is original.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Laberius as its first author.^[5] The Rhetorica ad Herennium says the treasury could not bear such a large largītiō, a distribution of land or doles.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a generous distribution of gifts, doles or land, and the bestowal of abstract things, as the grant of citizenship in Cicero.^[2] Given for gain, it is bribery: Cicero separates liberality from canvassing and largītiō.^[2] It is also the thing given, a bribe or dole.^[2] Cicero warns that giving from one's own property drains the very source of kindness.^[6]

Church Latin glosses it “donation, generosity, bribery”.^[7] In Medieval Latin it is the charter recording a donation, and in the plural riches.^[8]

Timeline

• 106–43 BC – Laberius.^[5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the grant of citizenship and of bribery.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A distribution of gifts, largess; a granting.^[2][1][7]
2. Bribery, corruption.^[2][1][7]
3. A bribe, dole.^[2]
4. (Medieval Latin) A charter of donation, (plural) riches.^[8]

Word family

• largītiōnālis

Related words

• largior
• largus

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes dōnum, a free present meant to please, mūnus, a gift as a reward for services, and largītiō, a gift from self-interested motives that wins people over and bribes them, usually for political ends.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper