Etymologically
Log in

persecutio

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 25 October 2026 at 00:47. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Forms

persecūtiō f (genitive persecūtiōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin persequor (“to follow persistently, pursue”) + -tiō.[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first records are legal: the agrarian law preserved in an inscription (CIL I² 585) gives heirs the right to sue (perseqvtio),[2] and the term recurs in the charter of Urso, in the Rhetorica ad Herennium and in Cicero.[3]

Semantic evolution

From the legal sense of pursuing a claim, the word kept the literal sense of a chase, used by the jurists of hunting a wild animal, and that of carrying an undertaking through to the end, in Apuleius.[2][4][5]

In Christian Latin, from the Old Latin Bible and Tertullian on, it became the word for the persecution of Christians:[3][4] Tertullian wrote a treatise on flight in time of persecution, and the Vulgate uses it in the Beatitudes.[4][6] Medieval Latin kept the senses of pursuit, prosecution and persecution, and widened the last to harassment of any kind.[7][8] English persecution comes from Old French and directly from the Latin.[9]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the plural in a legal sense, in the Orator, though the reading is doubtful.[4][5][10]
  • 3rd quarter of the 1st century BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it for legal action.[6][5][10]
  • AD 125–175 – Apuleius uses it for carrying a business through.[2][10]
  • AD 140–180 – Gaius uses it of the pursuit of a wild animal.[2][10]
  • c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it for the persecution of Christians.[4][6][10]
  • AD 390–406 – The Vulgate uses it in the Beatitudes.[4][10]
  • mid-14th century – English borrows it as persecution.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A chase, pursuit.[2][4]
  2. The carrying through or completion (of an undertaking).[2][4]
  3. (law) A legal action, or the right to sue; prosecution.[2][4]
  4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Persecution, especially of Christians.[4][8][11]
  5. (Medieval Latin) Harassment, attack.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  6. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  11. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson