plenarius

Forms

plēnārius (feminine plēnāria, neuter plēnārium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin plēnus (“full”) + -ārius.^[1][2][3] plēnus goes back to Proto-Italic *plēno- and Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁-nó- (“full”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Ambrose on, who speaks of three full blessings received; it means full, complete.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Late Latin it was a prose word, used mostly by Church writers and in law.^[2] Augustine speaks of a plenarium concilium, a full or plenary council of the Church,^[5] a sense that medieval Latin kept for plenary assemblies.^[6][7]

Medieval Latin used it widely for what is full or entire: a full measure of land, a full tithe, a whole period of time.^[8] As a noun, plenarius or plenarium was a missal or a book containing the Gospels and Epistles, and plenarium also an inventory of all the estates of a religious house, or a reliquary.^[6] English took the adjective as plenar in the mid-13th century and as plenary in the early 15th, partly through Old French.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose uses it for something full and complete.^[2][3]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine writes of a plenary council.^[5][3]
• 1123 – A Bath charter speaks of a full tithe.^[8]
• early 15th century – English has plenary, from Old French and directly from medieval Latin.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Full, complete, entire.^[2][6][7]
2. (of a meeting) Plenary.^[6][5]

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) A missal; a book containing the Gospels and Epistles.^[6]
2. (Medieval Latin, neuter plenarium) An inventory of all the estates of a religious house; a reliquary.^[6]

Related words

• plēnē
• plēnitās
• plēnitūdō
• plēnus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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 Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
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. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com