relatum

Forms

relātum n (genitive relātī); second declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin referō (“to bring back, report”), the noun use of the neuter of its past participle relātus.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in the rhetorician Aquila Romanus (3rd century AD)^[4] as the name of a figure of speech: the deliberate, emphatic repetition of the same word, the Greek ἐπαναφορά (epanaphorá).^[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

In medieval Latin it became a legal term.^[6][4] Niermeyer defines it as a written record of a transaction (a notice).^[6] Du Cange cites it from the epitaph of the abbot Wala by Paschasius Radbertus for a decision received from the elders of the people, so that no further dispute should arise.^[7] A formula in the appendix to Marculf is headed “relatum quod dicitur apennis”, where the document is then called chartula relationis, a charter containing a report.^[7]

Timeline

• 3rd century AD – Aquila Romanus uses it for a rhetorical figure of repetition.^[2][4]
• end of 8th century–mid 9th century – The Frankish formulae use it for a written record.^[4][7]
• first half of the 9th century – Paschasius Radbertus uses it of a ruling given by the elders.^[7][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rhetoric) Deliberate repetition of the same word, epanaphora.^[2][5][3]
2. (Medieval Latin) A written record of a legal act, a notice.^[6][7]
3. (Medieval Latin) A ruling or ordinance.^[7]

Related words

• relātiō

References

1. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
2. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e f du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre