proclamatio

Forms

prōclāmātiō f (genitive prōclāmātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

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

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest texts with it are the declamations transmitted under Quintilian's name, where it means an outcry,^[2][3] and the jurist Gaius (140–180 AD), who uses it for a claim to free status before a judge.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Besides a shout or outcry, in the declamations also of feigned cries under torture,^[3] it became a legal term: in the jurists of the Digest it is the assertion of a person's right to freedom.^[2][5][3] A Juvenal scholion uses it for exclamation as a figure of rhetoric.^[3]

In Medieval Latin it meant a complaint, especially a legal plaint or claim to recover property, a contestation or challenge, and a public announcement.^[6][7] English borrowed it in the late 14th century as proclamation, partly through Old French.^[8]

Timeline

• 140–180 AD – Gaius uses it for a claim to freedom.^[3][4]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian uses it in the same legal sense.^[2][3][4]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as proclamation.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. An outcry, a shout.^[2][5]
2. (law) The assertion of a claim to free status.^[2][5]
3. (Medieval Latin) A complaint; a legal plaint.^[6][7]
4. (Medieval Latin) A contestation, a challenge.^[6]
5. (Medieval Latin) A public announcement, proclamation.^[6]

Related words

• English proclamation

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com