obituarius

Forms

obituārius m (genitive obituāriī or obituārī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin obitus (“death”) + -ārius.^[1][2] The noun obitus comes from obeō (“to go to meet, to die”).^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Du Cange quotes it from a letter of 1454 about the church of Toulouse, where the obituarius receives the money left for the services for the dead and shares it out.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Köbler glosses it both as one who gives money for a requiem mass and as one who receives such money.^[4] Wiktionary gives it the sense of an obituary, a register of deaths,^[1] and Etymonline takes English obituary (1706, “register of deaths”) from Medieval Latin obituarius, literally “pertaining to death”.^[2] It passed also into Italian obituario and Spanish obituario.^[1]

Timeline

• 1454 – A letter concerning Toulouse uses it of the official who distributes money for the anniversaries of the dead.^[3]
• 1706 – Borrowed into English as obituary, a register of deaths.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) An official who collects and distributes money endowed for masses for the dead.^[3][4]
2. (Medieval Latin) An obituary, a record of deaths.^[1][2]

Related words

• English obituary

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de