rogatio

Forms

rogātiō f (genitive rogātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin rogō (“to ask”) + -tiō.^[2][1] De Vaan takes ⟨rogō⟩ as probably a verb from a noun Proto-Italic *rogo- “a directing of oneself towards someone”, hence “request”, or an adjective “stretching”, of the arms in begging, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃roǵ-o- (“stretching”); he compares Old Norse rakr (“straight”) and rogus (“funeral pyre”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[4] de Vaan from Varro.^[3] The OLD's earliest example is the historian Asellio, who speaks of not announcing what law or bill (rogātiō) had been carried.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Roman public law it is a bill put before an assembly: the people were asked whether they would decree it, and Cicero, Caesar and Livy use it often.^[2][5] More generally it is a request or invitation, as when Varro's speakers came to the temple “at the temple-keeper's invitation”, and in rhetoric a question, as in Cicero's De inventione.^[2]

Church Latin has it for a request, petition, rogation.^[6] In Medieval Latin it was also a tax, tallage, and in the plural the Rogations, the litanies sung on the three days before Ascension Day, and those days themselves.^[7] English rogation (late 14th century), “solemn supplication”, especially in Rogation Days, came through Old French and directly from it.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 100 BC – Asellio of a bill before the people.^[2][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of an invitation.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of questioning and of bills.^[2][4]
• late 14th century – English rogation, in Church use.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A request, invitation; entreaty.^[2][1][6]
2. Questioning, a question.^[2][1]
3. (law) A proposed measure put to a Roman assembly, a bill.^[2][5][1]
4. (Medieval Latin) A tax, tallage.^[7]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin, plural) The Rogations, litanies sung on the three days before Ascension Day; those days.^[7][6]

Word family

• rogātiuncula

Related words

• rogāmentum
• rogātor
• rogātus
• rogitātiō
• rogitō
• rogō
• interrogātiō
• English rogation

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com