onus

Forms

onus n (genitive oneris); third declension^[1] Gellius cites honus as an archaic spelling, and good manuscripts also have it.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *ones- (“load”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₃en-os (“load”).^[4][1] If Hittite anii̯e- (“to work, carry out”) belongs here, which is not certain in meaning, the root would rather be ⟨*h₁enH-⟩.^[4]

Cognate with Sanskrit अनस् (ánas, “heavy cart”) and अनड्वह् (anaḍváh, “draught ox”).^[4][2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] who has vix incēdō inānis, nē īre posse cum onere exīstumēs, “I can hardly walk empty-handed, so don't imagine I can go with a load”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Onus is a load or burden, the cargo of a ship, a weight (Cato of a wall bearing a load), and any heavy mass.^[2][3][1] It is an excessive or awkward load (Cicero: our soldiers count shield, sword and helmet no more a burden than their shoulders), and figuratively a burden of grief or care (Plautus of slavery: ferundum hoc onus est, “this burden must be borne”) and of responsibility, a task or charge (Plautus: in tē ego hoc onus omne impōnō, “I lay this whole burden on you”).^[2][1] Wiktionary adds a tax.^[1]

Church Latin glosses it “burden, load, cargo, obligation”.^[6] In Medieval Latin it is also a cartload of hay used as a measure for meadows, and a due.^[7] English onus dates from the 1640s, and legal Latin onus probandī, the burden of proof, from 1722.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: cum onere;^[2][8] in tē ego hoc onus omne impōnō.^[2][8]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of the load on a wall.^[2][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the soldier's equipment.^[2][8]
• 1640s – English onus.^[5]
• 1722 – onus probandī recorded in English legal use.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A load, burden; a cargo, freight.^[2][3][1][6]
2. A weight; a heavy mass.^[2]
3. An encumbrance.^[2]
4. A burden (of grief, care).^[2]
5. A burden of responsibility, task, charge; an obligation.^[2][6]
6. A tax.^[1]
7. (Medieval Latin) A cartload of hay (as a measure); a due.^[7]

Word family

• onerārius
• onerō
• onerōsus
• onustus

Related words

• English onus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de