litigiosus

Forms

lītigiōsus (feminine lītigiōsa, neuter lītigiōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Some manuscripts spell it lītigōsus.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin lītigium (“quarrel”) + -ōsus.^[3][1][2] lītigium belongs to lītigō (“to go to law”), from līs (“lawsuit”);^[4] de Vaan traces līs, archaic ⟨stlīs⟩, to Proto-Italic *slī-ti- (“accusation, dispute”), and perhaps Proto-Indo-European *sliH-ti-, comparing Old Irish líthech (“accused person”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[4] who speaks of a house not frequented by litigious men, a litigiosis hominibus, and of a man not at all litigious.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Of persons it means fond of going to law, litigious, and in general quarrelsome or contentious;^[3] Sidonius Apollinaris writes of two old women than whom nothing was more quarrelsome.^[6] Of things it means full of disputes: Cicero has a contentious discussion and Ovid the quarrelsome law courts.^[6] Of property it is the subject of a lawsuit, disputed, as in Cicero's small and disputed farm, in parvo et eo litigioso praediolo.^[3] Church Latin has it as contested, claimed, disputed or quarrelsome.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of litigious men and a disputed farm.^[3][4]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of the quarrelsome law courts.^[6][4]
• c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius Apollinaris, of two quarrelsome old women.^[6][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Fond of going to law, litigious;^[3][6][1] quarrelsome, contentious.^[3][6][1]
2. Full of disputes.^[6]
3. Of property: the subject of a lawsuit, disputed.^[3][1][7]

Related words

• lītigium
• lītigō
• līs

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson