Etymologically
Log in

manubiae

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 19 October 2026 at 20:40. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Forms

manubiae f pl (genitive manubiārum); first declension[1][2] Augustus writes manibiae.[1]

Etymology

It is probably from Latin manus (“hand”) + habeō (“to have, hold”), with a noun *-hibiae from habeō.[1][3] De Vaan reconstructs *manu-habiai, perhaps from a singular *manu-habiēs, and mentions Leumann's intermediate adjective *manu-habo-.[4] He traces manus to Proto-Italic *man-u- (“hand”) and Proto-Indo-European *mon-u- (“hand”), and habeō to Proto-Indo-European *gʰh₁b(ʰ)-(e)i- (“to take”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Naevius.[3] The OLD's first example is an elogium recording a temple built from spoils.[1]

Semantic evolution

In military and legal language it is the general's share of the booty, or the money raised from its sale, which a general often spent on public buildings: Livy has a temple built from the spoils of captured cities.[2][1] Gellius reports Favorinus' distinction: praeda is the captured things themselves, manubiae the money the quaestor raised by selling them, though some writers confused the words.[2] Figuratively it is profit from other sources, as when Livy speaks of the spoils of thefts.[1] In the Etruscan lore that Seneca reports, it names the three thunderbolts of Jupiter, of which he hurls the third only after consulting the gods.[1] Köbler also records it in British Medieval Latin about 1150.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it.[3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a general's spoils.[2][3]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a temple built from spoils.[2][3]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca the Younger of Jupiter's thunderbolts.[1][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The general's share of the booty, or the money from its sale; prize money.[1][2]
  2. Profit, gain from other sources.[1]
  3. The three thunderbolts of Jupiter; also in the singular, one of them.[1]

Usage notes

Döderlein groups it with praeda, spolia and exuviae: praeda and manubiae are booty as gain from conquest, spolia and exuviae booty as a mark of victory; praeda is any booty, manubiae only the honourable booty taken in war.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper