oboedientia

Forms

oboedientia f (genitive oboedientiae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin oboediēns (“obedient”) + -ia,^[2][1] from oboediō (“to obey”),^[3][4] which is itself formed from ob- and audiō (“to hear”).^[2] The TLL compares audientia.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found in Cicero,^[5][6] meaning obedience: in the Paradoxa Stoicorum he calls slavery the obedience of a broken spirit.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

Pliny the Elder used it of animals, of bees around their king and of elephants that obey orders.^[5][8]

In Christian and Medieval Latin it became a term of monastic life: the obedience a monk owes, the vow of obedience, and then a task or office given to a monk or canon under that vow.^[9][10] By extension it named the management of a religious house's outlying property and the estate so managed.^[9] Italian obbedienza and ubbidienza continue it,^[7] and English took obedience from Old French around 1200.^[11]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of persons.^[5][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of bees and elephants.^[5][6]
• 802 – Alcuin uses it in a letter beside charity and humility.^[10]
• c. 1200 – English borrows obedience from Old French.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Obedience, submission.^[2][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) discipline.^[9]
3. (Medieval Latin) Monastic obedience; the vow of obedience.^[9][10]
4. (Medieval Latin) A task or office given to a monk or canon under the vow of obedience.^[9]
5. (Medieval Latin) An estate of a religious house administered by one of its monks or canons.^[9]

Related words

• English obedience

Usage notes

The spelling obēdientia is found in inscriptions,^[4] and the OLD gives it as a variant.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b c d e f Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com