reconciliatio

Forms

reconciliātiō f (genitive reconciliātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin reconciliō (“to bring together again”) + -tiō.^[2][3][1] De Vaan lists the verb and concilium under calō¹ (“to call”), which he traces to Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Cicero on.^[3][5] In the third Catilinarian Cicero speaks of strife ended not by a reconciliatio concordiae but by the slaughter of citizens.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

With a genitive it is the restoring of something, as concord or goodwill: Cicero has reconciliatio gratiae, the renewal of friendship, and in a letter of Balbus and Oppius it is the renewal of goodwill with Pompey.^[2][6] Used alone it is a reconciliation, mostly in post-Augustan writers: Livy says there was no need of a reconciliation, and Suetonius has Calvus seeking one through friends.^[6] The plural is rare, as in Suetonius.^[6][3]

The TLL finds it more often in Christian writers.^[3] The Vulgate speaks of the ministerium reconciliationis, the ministry of reconciliation,^[6] and Church Latin used it for reconciliation and forgiveness.^[7] In medieval Latin it was the absolution of a penitent and the reconsecration of a church that had been profaned.^[8][5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of restoring concord and friendship.^[2][6][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of a reconciliation between persons.^[6][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate's “ministry of reconciliation”.^[6][5]
• mid-14th century – English borrows it, from Old French and directly from Latin, as reconciliation.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Restoration, renewal (of concord, friendship).^[2][6][1]
2. reconciliation.^[2][6][1][7]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Reconciliation of a sinner, forgiveness; the sacrament of reconciliation.^[7][1]
4. (Medieval Latin) absolution of a penitent.^[8]
5. (Medieval Latin) Reconsecration of a profaned church.^[8][5]

Related words

• reconciliō
• conciliō
• concilium
• English reconciliation

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com