medietas

Forms

medietās f (genitive medietātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin medius (“middle”) + -tās,^[2][3][1] first made by Cicero as a rendering of Ancient Greek μεσότης (mesótēs, “middle, mean”).^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero introduces it hesitantly in his translation of Plato's Timaeus: vix enim audeo dicere medietates, quas Graeci μεσότητας appellant, “for I hardly dare to say medietates, which the Greeks call mesotētes”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Apart from Cicero it is post-classical.^[4] In Apuleius it is the middle point or part and the state of being intermediate, and also a middle course: Apuleius reports a third something lying between virtues and vices, and the jurist Paulus says that the authorities on law followed a middle course.^[2][5] From the middle it came to mean a half: Palladius speaks of half of a tree or a furrow, Ammianus of half an inheritance, and the Code of Justinian of half a debt.^[5]

The sense “half” became the usual one in Medieval Latin, especially in land tenure: to hold or work land ad medietātem was to hold it for half the crop, and to take someone ad medietātem was to conclude a pariage contract with him; it could also be a piece of land lying between others.^[6][7] Through Old French meitiet, later moitié, it gave English moiety in the mid-15th century.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero coins it for the Greek word for a mean.^[4][9]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it for the middle and a middle course.^[2][9]
• c. 370 AD – Eutropius uses it for a half.^[5][9]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus speaks of half an inheritance.^[5][9]
• mid-15th century – English moiety appears.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The fact of being intermediate.^[2]
2. The middle, central point or part.^[2][4][1]
3. A middle course, a mean between extremes.^[2][5][7]
4. (Late Latin) A half.^[5][6][1]
5. (Medieval Latin) ad medietātem: for half the crop, in share-cropping; also of a pariage contract.^[6][6]
6. (Medieval Latin) A piece of land lying between others.^[6]

Related words

• medius
• English moiety

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de