Etymologically
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proprietarius

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [prɔ.pri.ɛˈtaː.ri.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [pro.pri.eˈtaː.ri.us][1]

Forms

proprietārius m (genitive proprietāriī or proprietārī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin proprietās (“ownership; property”) + -ārius.[2][3][1] That noun comes from proprius (“one's own”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it in legal language from the jurist Julian on, often in Ulpian;[3] it meant an owner, especially one who owns a thing while another has its usufruct.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Gaius (140–180 AD)[6] uses it in the same legal sense,[3][6] and the Sententiae of Paulus have it as an adjective, proprietaria res, a thing belonging to someone as his property.[5] The TLL notes that it also passed into Greek.[3]

Medieval Latin used it as an adjective “of ownership, of a proprietor”, and as a noun for an owner;[7][8] a monachus proprietarius was a monk who kept private property against his vow of poverty.[7][8] English proprietary (mid-15th century) first described such clerics, who held more worldly goods than they needed.[4]

Timeline

  • 140–180 AD – Gaius uses it of an owner in the Digest.[3][6]
  • before 223 AD – Ulpian uses it often.[2][3][6]
  • 1234 – A visitation at Bury excommunicates monks who own property.[8]
  • mid-15th century – English borrows it as proprietary.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (law) An owner, proprietor, especially one without the usufruct.[2][5][3]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A monk who owns private property.[7][8]

Adjective

  1. Of an owner; belonging to someone as his property.[5][9]
  2. (Medieval Latin) Of ownership, proprietary.[7][8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b c d e Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson