praedium

Forms

praedium n (genitive praediī or praedī); second declension^[1] Inscriptions have the spelling predis.^[2]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[1] The OLD and Köbler connect it with praes (“surety, bondsman”), since the first sense is land pledged by a guarantor;^[2][3][1] Wiktionary gives ⟨praes⟩ with the suffix -ium as a possibility.^[2][3][1] De Vaan reports Leumann's explanation of ⟨praes⟩ from ⟨*prae-wad-⟩, with vas (“surety”), from Proto-Indo-European *wodʰ-s (“one who leads the defendant to court”), cognate with Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌳𐌹 (wadi, “pledge”) and Lithuanian vãdas (“surety”).^[4] Lewis & Short instead take the noun for ⟨*prae-hendium⟩, from prehendō (“to seize”).^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Stichus: people ask whether it is debt that drives him, or whether he has bought an estate (an parārit praedium).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Cato's speeches it is land pledged to the state by a guarantor, as Cicero's formula praedibus et praediīs populō cautum est, “the people was secured by sureties and pledged land”.^[2][5] Its usual meaning is a landed property or estate, in town or country;^[2][5] praedium urbānum is land used chiefly for building.^[2][5] Döderlein notes that praedium can be either a country house or a landed estate, as opposed to villa, the house, and fundus, the land.^[6]

Church Latin glosses it “estate, farm, plot of land”.^[7] In medieval Latin it was an allod, land held in full ownership as opposed to a tenancy.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of buying an estate.^[2][3]
• 234–149 BC – Cato of land pledged to the state.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of town properties.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Land pledged as security by a guarantor.^[2]
2. A landed property, estate, farm.^[2][1][7]
3. (Medieval Latin) An allod, land held in full ownership.^[8]

Word family

• praediātor
• praediātūra
• praediātus
• praediolum
• domnipraedius
• praediālis
• praediātōrius

Related words

• praes
• villa
• fundus

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 h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f 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 d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill