reconcilio

Forms

reconciliō (present infinitive reconciliāre, perfect active reconciliāvī, supine reconciliātum); first conjugation^[1] Plautus has the old future forms reconciliassō and reconciliassere.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- + conciliō (“to bring together, win over”).^[2][4] De Vaan lists it, with conciliō and concilium, under calō (“to call”), which he traces to Proto-Italic *kela- and Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call”), comparing Umbrian kar̆etu (“he must call”) and Ancient Greek καλέω (kaléō, “to call”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Naevius,^[5] and the TLL finds it in the verse of Naevius, Plautus and Ennius before Cicero's prose.^[4] In Ennius a speaker asks whether his wife is to be reconciled while his daughter is put to death.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to bring people or parties back into friendship, to reconcile, and also to bring a quarrel back into harmony: Pliny the Elder has a fight between bees stopped with milk.^[2] It is also to win back or restore something lost, especially goodwill: Cicero speaks of recovering the lost good name of the courts.^[2] In Plautus' Captivi it is to bring a person back home.^[2] Apuleius uses it of setting a dislocated joint.^[2] Church Latin glosses it to reconcile, absolve, reunite.^[6] It came into English as reconcile in the mid-14th century, through reconcilier and directly from Latin, of persons and of God restoring sinners to grace.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius.^[5][8]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of bringing a man back home.^[2][8]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius of a wife reconciled.^[2][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of restoring the courts' reputation.^[2][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of bees reconciled with milk.^[2][8]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of setting a joint.^[2][8]
• mid-14th century – Borrowed into English as reconcile.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bring back into friendship, reconcile; to bring a quarrel back into harmony.^[2][3][1]
2. To win back, restore, re-establish (goodwill and similar); to bring a person back to a place or condition.^[2][1]
3. To set a dislocated joint.^[2]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To reconcile, absolve.^[6]

Word family

• reconciliātiō
• reconciliātor

Related words

• conciliō
• dēconciliō
• inconciliō
• reconciliātrīx
• English reconcile

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
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
8. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de