obligatus

Forms

obligātus (feminine obligāta, neuter obligātum, comparative obligātior); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the perfect passive participle from Latin obligō (“to tie up, oblige”).^[1][3] That verb is a compound of ob- and ligō¹ (“to tie”), which de Vaan traces, with a question mark, to Proto-Indo-European *liǵ- (“to tie”), comparing Albanian lidh (“to tie”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Cicero,^[5] meaning under an obligation: ne obligati esse videantur, “so that they may not seem to be under an obligation”.^[1]

Semantic evolution

It means bound by a moral or legal obligation, beholden: Cicero writes obligatus ei nihil eram, “I was not at all obliged to him”, and Pliny the Younger has the comparative obligatior.^[1][2] With a genitive it means liable or responsible for something, in a law preserved in an inscription and in Ulpian.^[1] Horace uses it of something owed by right, a feast due to Jupiter.^[1] In medieval Latin obligatus was also a noun for a dependant of some class whose nature is unclear.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of people under an obligation.^[1][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a feast owed to Jupiter.^[1][5]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian uses it of being liable in law.^[1][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Under a moral or legal obligation, obliged, beholden.^[1][7]
2. (with genitive) Liable, responsible (for).^[1]
3. Owed by right, due.^[1]
4. (Medieval Latin, as a noun) A dependant of an unclear class.^[6]

Usage notes

The glossaries also record a fourth-declension noun obligātus, -ūs in the sense “obligation”.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
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 d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften