obaeratus

Forms

obaerātus (feminine obaerāta, neuter obaerātum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from ob (“on account of”) and aes (“bronze, money”) with the suffix -ātus,^[2][1] like aerātus.^[3] Varro already connects it with the word for money, speaking of a man bound to work off a debt.^[3][4] aes goes back to Proto-Italic *ajos and Proto-Indo-European *h₂ei-os (“bronze”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro uses it in the De lingua Latina to explain nexus, a free man who owed his labour as a slave until he had paid a debt;^[4][3] Cicero, in the De re publica, and Caesar use the plural as a noun, “debtors”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

As a noun it names debtors, often with clients or exiles: Caesar tells how Orgetorix gathered all his clients and obaerati,^[4][3] and Livy lists exules, obaerati, capitalia ausi, exiles, debtors and men who had dared capital crimes.^[3] Tacitus speaks of debtors taking refuge in a temple from their creditors.^[3]

As an adjective, “in debt”, it appears in Livy, Seneca, Suetonius and Tacitus, who has the comparative obaeratior.^[3][4] Seneca uses it figuratively of being indebted for kindnesses,^[3] and Ambrose of the debt of sin inherited from Adam.^[3]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro explains it.^[3][4][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the noun “debtors”.^[3][4][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of the debtors of Orgetorix.^[3][4][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it as an adjective and a noun.^[3][6]
• c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose uses it of the debt of sin.^[3][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. In debt, burdened with debt.^[2][4]
2. (figurative) Indebted (for kindnesses; in Christian writers, for sin).^[3]

Noun

1. A debtor, especially one bound to work off a debt.^[2][4][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de