privatio

Forms

prīvātiō f (genitive prīvātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin prīvō + -tiō, a noun of action from the verb meaning “to deprive”.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero (81–43 BC),^[3][4] who in the De finibus reports the Epicurean view that the removal of all pain is rightly called pleasure: doloris omnis privatio recte nominata est voluptas (“the absence of all pain is rightly named pleasure”).^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it is rare: the TLL counts three passages in Cicero, one in Festus' epitome and four in Gellius, who uses it for the removal or absence of a feeling or fault.^[3][5] It became frequent from Lactantius and Marius Victorinus on, and above all in Augustine and Boethius, as a term of philosophy and theology for the absence of a quality or condition, a negation.^[3][2] Augustine thus defines evil as nothing but a privation of good.^[3] It does not occur in verse.^[3]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it also meant removal from an office as a penalty.^[6] English borrowed it in the late 14th century as privation.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the absence of pain.^[3][5][4]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it for the absence of a fault.^[3][5][4]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine calls evil a privation of good.^[3][4]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as privation.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A taking away, removal, deprivation.^[5][3]
2. (philosophy) The absence of a condition or quality, negation, privation.^[2][3]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Removal from an office as a penalty.^[6]

Related words

• English privation

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com