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reliquum

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Forms

reliquum n (genitive reliquī); second declension[1] It is also spelled reliquom, relicuum and relicum.[1]

Etymology

It is the neuter of reliquus (“remaining”) used as a noun.[1][2] De Vaan explains the adjective from an older ⟨*relikuwos⟩, formed on relinquō (“to leave behind”), whose base linquō (“to leave”) continues Proto-Italic *linkʷ- and the nasal present Proto-Indo-European *li-n-kʷ- (“to leave”); cognate with Ancient Greek λείπω (leípō, “to leave”) and Old Irish léicid (“to let go, leave”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Poenulus: paene oblītus sum relicuom dīcere, “I almost forgot to say the rest”.[1][2]

Semantic evolution

It is the rest or remainder, and in the plural the mortal remains of a person in inscriptions, dē reliquō is “as for the rest”, and Varro uses sīc reliqua for “and so on”.[1] With a partitive genitive, nihil reliquī is “nothing left”, and nihil reliquī facere to leave nothing undone (Cicero).[1] In accounts it is a sum still owing, arrears, or a balance.[1] The plural is also the future, as Cicero's bitter expectation of what was to come, and in reliquum is “for the future”.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of the rest of a story and of nothing left.[1][2]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro of a sum still owing.[1][2]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of the future.[1][2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The rest, remainder, (plural) the remains (of a person); dē reliquō, as for the rest.[1][2]
  2. nihil reliquī: nothing left, nihil reliquī facere, to leave nothing undone.[1]
  3. A sum still owing, arrears; a balance.[1][2]
  4. (plural) The future, in reliquum, for the future.[1]

References

  1. ^ 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
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill