Etymologically
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piaculum

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [piˈaː.kʊ.ɫũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [piˈaː.ku.lum][1]

Forms

piāculum n (genitive piāculī); second declension[1] Prudentius has the syncopated piāclum.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin piō (“to appease, expiate”) + -culum.[3][4][1] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Italic *pīāklom from Umbrian pihaclu.[1] De Vaan derives that Umbrian word for a peace offering from ⟨*piā-tlo-⟩, and traces pius (“dutiful”) to Proto-Indo-European *puH-io- (“purifying”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Ennius and lists the laws of the kings.[6] In the OLD's earliest quotation Cato prescribes a pig as an expiatory victim.[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a victim offered in atonement, then a rite of expiation: Virgil has crimes left unatoned.[3] Livy uses it of an act of atonement exacted from those who violated a temple.[3] It is also an act that calls for expiation, a sin: in Plautus it is a sin to pity men who manage badly.[3] Pliny the Elder uses it of disasters that call for expiatory rites.[3] Church Latin glosses it sin offering, remedy, punishment, sin, crime, guilt.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a sin.[3][6]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it.[6]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato of a pig as an expiatory victim.[3][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of unatoned crimes.[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An expiatory victim, sin offering.[3][2][1][7]
  2. A rite of expiation; an act of atonement.[3][1]
  3. An act that demands expiation, a sin, crime; a disaster calling for expiation.[3][1][7]

Word family

  • piāculāris
  • piāculō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson