principalitas

Forms

prīncipālitās f (genitive prīncipālitātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin prīncipālis + -itās, from the adjective meaning “first, principal”.^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Tertullian (c. 160–220 AD) on,^[2][4] who uses it for the ruling part of the soul, the faculty that governs the mind and the senses.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Post-classical writers used it for the first place, superiority or excellence of a thing;^[3][6] Macrobius speaks of kinds of pre-eminence.^[3] In the Latin translation of Irenaeus it is the supremacy of God over all things, and by metonymy a supreme power itself.^[2] Of people, it was the rank of the leading men of a town council in the Theodosian Code,^[2] and it became an honorific title for emperors (“your Principality”).^[2][5]

Medieval Latin kept the sense of pre-eminence and added “principality”, the rule or territory of a prince,^[7][5] for which Du Cange cites a charter of 1018.^[5][4] English took it over about 1300, partly through Old French.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of the ruling part of the soul.^[2][4]
• 438 AD – The Theodosian Code uses it of the rank of leading town councillors.^[2][4]
• first half of the 5th century AD – Macrobius writes of kinds of pre-eminence.^[3][4]
• 1018 – A charter in the Gallia Christiana uses it for a principality.^[5][4]
• c. 1300 – English borrows it as principality.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The first place, superiority, pre-eminence, excellence.^[3][6][7]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The ruling part of the soul.^[2][5]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The supremacy of God; a supreme power.^[2]
4. (Late Latin) The rank of a leading member of a town council; as a title, the majesty of an emperor.^[2][5]
5. (Medieval Latin) A principality.^[7][5][9]

Related words

• English principality

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson