obtrectatio

Forms

obtrectātiō f (genitive obtrectātiōnis); third declension^[1] It is also spelled optrectātiō and obtractātiō.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin obtrectō (“to disparage”) + -tiō.^[2][1][3] The OLD analyses that verb as ob- and tractō (“to handle”), and de Vaan derives the latter from the participle of trahō (“to draw, drag”).^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Plautus on, who uses it once, in the Persa, in a list of vices beside perfidia, avaritia, invidia and ambitio.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It is an attitude or verbal attack prompted by envy or malice: detraction, disparagement.^[2][6] Cicero defines it in the Tusculans as what the Greeks call ζηλοτυπία (zēlotupía), distress that another also enjoys what one wanted for oneself, and often pairs it with invidia and malevolentia.^[6][3] With an objective genitive it means jealous opposition to something: Caesar has obtrectatio laudis and Livy gloriae alienae.^[6][7] Nepos says that among rivals for praise there was no jealousy between them, and Tacitus joins it with livor.^[7][6] The TLL notes that in poetry it is found only in Prudentius.^[3] The Old Latin Bible uses it in 1 Peter 2:1, where the Vulgate has detractiones.^[3] Christian writers often use it in the plural from Cyprian on.^[3] Medieval British writers keep the sense malicious criticism, detraction, as Bede, who warns against idle gossip and detraction.^[8] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means detraction, envious disparagement.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus lists it among the vices.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero defines it as a kind of distress over another's good fortune.^[6][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar has obtrectatio laudis.^[6][5]
• 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius, the only poet to use it.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Detraction, disparagement prompted by envy or malice; jealous opposition (with genitive, to someone's glory or praise).^[2][6][7]
2. (Medieval Latin) Malicious criticism, backbiting.^[8]

Related words

• obtrectō

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes it from invidia, līvor and malignitās, which are feelings or states of mind: obtrectātiō is the action that springs from such a feeling, an attempt to harm the envied person by dishonourable means, that is, detraction; it hardly exists without invidia, but invidia can exist without it.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b 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 f g h i 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 d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b 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. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper