pollicitatio

Forms

pollicitātiō f (genitive pollicitātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pollicitor (“to keep promising”) + -tiō, a frequentative of polliceor (“to promise”).^[2][3][4] De Vaan files polliceor under licet (“it is allowed”), from Proto-Italic *lik-ē- (“to be available, have the value of”); after Nussbaum he explains the deponent as to make oneself available, then to offer or promise.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Lewis & Short's earliest quotation Plautus fears that such a promise will bring someone into disrepute with the people.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

It is a promise, usually in the plural.^[4][2] The TLL finds it in verse only in Plautus and Terence, and in prose from the Rhetorica ad Herennium and Caesar, who uses it more often than ⟨prōmissiō⟩;^[3][4] Cicero lacks it, and it is common in lawyers and Christian writers.^[3][4] Caesar has someone persuaded by great rewards and promises.^[4] Asinius Pollio, writing to Cicero, tells how Antony summoned a legion with the promise of 500 denarii a man.^[4] In law Ulpian defines it as the promise of the offering party alone, unlike a pact, and the jurist Paulus says that no action arises from a bare promise.^[3][4] Donatus treats it as more than ⟨prōmissiō⟩.^[3] Church Latin glosses it promise, offer, pledge.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a promise.^[4][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of rewards and promises.^[4][6]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian defines it in law.^[3][6]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A promise, offer, pledge.^[2][4][1][7]
2. (law) A one-sided promise, as opposed to a pact.^[3]

Related words

• polliceor
• pollicitor

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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 k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson