Etymologically
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populatio

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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]

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