populatio

Forms

populātiō f (genitive populātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin populor (“to lay waste”) + -tiō.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Caesar uses it of the ravaging of the land.^[3][4] Köbler dates Caesar c. 50 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It was the action of ravaging a country, a plundering raid, much used by Livy, and Lewis & Short note that it is not in Cicero.^[2][5] By metonymy it was plunder or booty, as Livy's soldiers full of spoils.^[3][1] Figuratively it meant destruction, ruin or corruption.^[1][6]

In medieval British Latin it was plundering, and also the supplying of a place with inhabitants.^[7] Niermeyer records the senses of a crowd, of settlement and of a rural colony.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of ravaging.^[3][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of plundering raids and booty.^[2][3][4]
• 1st half of the 5th century AD – Sedulius uses the homograph meaning a people.^[5][4]
• 1610s – English population is recorded, from the Late Latin homograph.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Ravaging, plundering, devastation.^[2][5]
2. Plunder, booty.^[3][1]
3. Destruction, ruin, corruption.^[1][6]
4. (Medieval Latin) Settlement; a rural colony.^[8][7]

Related words

• populor
• English population

Usage notes

A Late Latin homograph populātiō, from populus “people”, meant a people, a multitude, as when Sedulius says the crowd present wept for Lazarus.^[5][10] English population comes from this word.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften