Etymologically
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relatum

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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]

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