peculiaritas

Forms

pecūliāritās f (genitive pecūliāritātis); third declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin pecūliāris (“one's own, special”) + -tās, a Late Latin formation.^[3][2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it no earlier than the 6th century, first in Rusticus' Latin version of the acts of the councils, of a special bond of love between people or with God, and once in an address (“your peculiaritas”).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Gregory the Great uses it for a special tie, for the right of an owner, and for the private property of monks, which he wanted curbed.^[2] In medieval documents it meant a monk's private property, a wife's own goods, the estates set aside for the upkeep of a religious community or of its abbot, and social intercourse;^[4] it appears in the Visigothic laws.^[5]

British Medieval Latin also used it for a special quality, for private ownership as a vice of monks, and, in the Catholicon Anglicum, for meekness.^[3] Ecclesiastical Latin has it for peculiarity or distinctiveness.^[6]

Timeline

• 6th century AD – Rusticus uses it of a special bond of love.^[2]
• 540–604 AD – Gregory the Great uses it for a special tie and for monks' private property.^[2][1]
• 893 – A diploma uses it.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) A special bond, close affection.^[2][4]
2. (Late Latin) The right of an owner.^[2]
3. (Late Latin) Private property, especially a monk's.^[2][4][3]
4. (Medieval Latin) A wife's own goods, paraphernalia.^[4]
5. (Medieval Latin) Estates set aside for the upkeep of a religious community or of its abbot.^[4]
6. (Medieval Latin) Social intercourse.^[4]
7. (Medieval Latin) A special quality, peculiarity, distinctiveness.^[3][6]
8. (Medieval Latin) Meekness.^[3]

Related words

• peculium
• English peculiarity

References

1. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e 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
4. ^ a b c d e f Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Liber exquisiti xenii: Lexikon frühmittelalterlicher Rechtswörter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson