oblectamentum

Forms

oblectāmentum n (genitive oblectāmentī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin oblectō (“to delight, amuse”) + -mentum.^[2][3][1] De Vaan lists oblectō among the compounds of a verb lactō (“to entice”), which goes with laciō and the stem Proto-Italic *lak- (“to draw, pull”).^[4] The TLL compares dēlectāmentum, made in the same way from dēlectō.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler finds it first in Cicero,^[5] who calls farming the rest and delight of old age.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It means a source or object of pleasure or amusement, with a genitive of the person delighted or the thing: Cicero speaks of the delights of boys and of the delights and comforts of slavery, and Pliny the Elder of things that please the palate.^[2][6] The plural is far more common than the singular.^[3] An ancient list of word distinctions says that oblectamentum is the thing that delights, while oblectātiō is the act of delighting.^[3] In Church Latin it is glossed pleasure, amusement and allurement.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the delights of old age, of boys and of slaves.^[6][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of delights of the palate.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A source of delight, pleasure or amusement.^[2][6][1]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) An allurement.^[7]

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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e 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