praedicamentum

Forms

praedicāmentum n (genitive praedicāmentī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin praedicō¹ (“to proclaim, predicate”) + -mentum,^[1][2] made as a calque of Ancient Greek κατηγορία (katēgoría, “predication, category”).^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in Marius Victorinus, in the first half of the 4th century AD, as a term of logic for a category.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In logic it stood for the Greek categoria, and above all for Aristotle's ten categories: Augustine mentions them in the Confessions, and Boethius explains that they are so called because they are predicated of all other things.^[2] More generally it was whatever is predicated, a quality.^[5][6]

Medieval Latin added the senses of a prediction, a declaration, and a preaching or sermon.^[7][1] English predicament was first a philosophical term for a category.^[3]

Timeline

• first half of the 4th century AD – Marius Victorinus uses it for a category of logic.^[2][4]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine writes of the ten praedicamenta in the Confessions.^[2][5][4]
• c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus equates categoriae and praedicamenta.^[2][4]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville uses it in the plural for the categories.^[5][4]
• early 15th century – English borrows predicament as a term of philosophy.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (logic) A category, one of Aristotle's categories.^[2][5][7]
2. That which is predicated, a quality.^[5][6][1]
3. (Medieval Latin) A prediction.^[7]
4. (Medieval Latin) A declaration.^[7]
5. (Medieval Latin) A preaching, a sermon.^[7][1]

Related words

• antepraedicāmentum
• praedicatum
• English predicament

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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 e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d e Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill