licitatio

Forms

licitātiō f (genitive licitātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin licitor (“to bid”) + -tiō.^[2][1] De Vaan explains licitor as the frequentative of licet, whose root Proto-Italic *lik-ē- (“to be available, have the value of”) has no certain cognates outside Italic.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero,^[4] for the open bidding at a sale: in the Verrines prices are sought out publicly and bids made.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

It named the act of bidding at an auction and a single bid.^[2][1] Suetonius has ad licitationem dividere “to divide among the highest bidders” and licitatio maxima “the highest bid”, and the jurists speak of winning by the bid.^[5][6] Medieval British writers kept the sense, and Osbern of Gloucester glosses it with venditio “sale”.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for the bidding at a sale.^[5][4]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it for the highest bid.^[5][4]
• 1166 – Gilbert Foliot writes that a chancellorship was obtained by a bid of many thousand marks.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The offering of a price, bidding at an auction.^[2][5]
2. A bid.^[1][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b 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