obligatorius

Forms

obligātōrius (feminine obligātōria, neuter obligātōrium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin obligō + -tōrius, from the verb “to bind, put under obligation”.^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it from inscriptions.^[4] The OLD's first citation is the jurist Gaius in the Digest, who says that a mandate given as advice is not binding, because no one is bound by advice (nemo ex consilio obligatur).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It remained a legal term, “imposing a legal obligation”,^[2][5] and Justinian's Institutes take over Gaius' passage.^[3] In Ecclesiastical and Medieval Latin it meant “obligatory” and “concerning a legal obligation”,^[6][7] and British sources used it of what binds morally or legally, as a vow, and in logic of an argument that binds a respondent in a disputation.^[8]

English borrowed it about 1400, from Old French obligatoire and directly from the Latin, as obligatory.^[9]

Timeline

• 140–180 AD – Gaius uses it of a mandate that is not binding.^[2][3][4]
• 533 – Justinian's Institutes repeat Gaius' ruling.^[3]
• c. 1400 – English borrows it as obligatory.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (law) Imposing a legal obligation, binding.^[2][10][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) Obligatory, binding morally or legally.^[6][8]
3. (Medieval Latin, logic) Binding a respondent to answer in a disputation.^[8]

Related words

• English obligatory

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press