reputatio

Forms

reputātiō f (genitive reputātiōnis); third declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin reputō (“to reckon up, think over”) + -tiō, a noun of action made from the verb.^[1][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short label it post-Augustan,^[2] and its first author is Pliny the Elder, who uses it for the turning over of a subject in the mind: of likenesses he says that inmensa reputātiō est, “the reckoning is endless”.^[3][1]

Semantic evolution

In Classical prose it stayed a word for reflection or a subject of thought: Tacitus writes me veterum novorumque morum reputātiō longius tulit, “reflection on old and new ways has carried me too far”,^[1][2][3] and Pliny the Younger and Gellius use it in the same sense.^[1][2]

The jurists of the Digest gave it a technical sense: an item to be taken into account when an account is drawn up, such as a guardian's claim that he has spent money on feeding his ward.^[1][2][5] Medieval Latin used it for an imputation or accusation,^[6] and in British sources ⟨reputatio⟩ is also a spelling of repetītiō.^[7] Italian reputazione comes from it.^[8]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of reflection on a subject.^[3][1][4]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus speaks of his reputātiō of old and new ways.^[1][4]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it beside contemplātiō.^[2][4]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian uses it of an item reckoned in an account.^[1][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Consideration, reflection; a subject of thought.^[1][2][3]
2. (law) An item to be allowed for in drawing up an account; a reckoning.^[1][2][5]
3. (Medieval Latin) An imputation, accusation.^[6]

Related words

• English reputation

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier