rauba

Forms

rauba f (genitive raubae); first declension^[1] Also spelled raupa, roba and rupa.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Proto-Germanic *raubaz (“something torn off, booty”).^[3][2] Köbler traces the Germanic word to Proto-Indo-European *reup- (“to tear, break”).^[3][4] Etymonline gives the same Germanic source for French robe, whose secondary sense was “plunder, booty”, and supposes that fine clothes taken from an enemy as spoils explain the shift.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler finds it first in the law of the Alamanni and in the formulas of Marculf, in the sense of booty and of clothes taken from an enemy.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Its meanings ran from booty and spoils, especially clothes stripped from an enemy, to valuables and movable goods, household furnishings, and finally clothes in general: livery, an outer garment of a man or woman, and rauba lecti “bedclothes”.^[2][3] In the Neo-Latin of Italy it meant goods, things, like Italian roba: a commentator on Dante explains it as a store of things, and a Genoese record of 1466 uses it of the merchandise of German merchants.^[1]

Timeline

• 712–725? – The law of the Alamanni has it.^[3]
• 720–730 – Marculf's formulas use it of clothes taken from an enemy and of booty.^[3]
• 1466 – A Genoese record uses it for merchants' goods.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) Booty, spoils, plunder.^[2][3]
2. (Medieval Latin) Clothes taken from an enemy.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) Valuables, movable goods; household furniture.^[2][3]
4. (Medieval Latin) Clothes; livery; a man's or woman's outer garment, a robe.^[2] Rauba lecti: bedclothes.^[2]
5. (New Latin) Goods, things.^[1]

Related words

• English robe
• English rob

References

1. ^ a b c d Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
5. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com