Etymologically
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regius

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈreː.ɡi.ʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈrɛː.d͡ʒi.us][1]

Forms

rēgius (feminine rēgia, neuter rēgium); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from the stem ⟨rēg-⟩ of rēx “king” with the suffix -ius.[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citation is from Livius Andronicus, of what belongs to a king.[2] Köbler dates him 280/260–before 200 BC.[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant of a king, royal, as Cicero's genus rēgium “royal race”, and in Livy rēgiī the king's men.[2][5] It meant done by a king, of royal blood, and of government monarchic, as Cicero's rēgia potestās, and nōmen rēgium the title of king, as in Caesar.[2][5] In a good sense it meant kingly, in a bad one despotic, and in Plautus princely, splendid.[2] It appears in names of creatures and plants, and morbus rēgius in Horace was jaundice; it is also in town names such as Hippo Regius.[2][5] Döderlein explains that rēgius is what belongs to or descends from a king, rēgālis what befits a king.[6]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant royal.[7] In Medieval Latin a homō rēgius was a person freed by the king's intervention.[8] English regius is a learned borrowing.[1]

Timeline

  • 280/260–before 200 BC – Livius Andronicus has the word.[2][4]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of the splendid.[2][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses genus rēgium and rēgia potestās.[5][4]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses morbus rēgius.[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of a king, royal, rēgiī, the king's men.[2]
  2. Done by a king; of royal blood.[2]
  3. Monarchic, nōmen rēgium, the title of king.[2]
  4. Kingly; despotic.[2]
  5. Princely, splendid.[2]
  6. morbus rēgius, jaundice.[2]

Word family

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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill