Etymologically
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salvitas

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Forms

salvitās f (genitive salvitātis); third declension[1][2] Variant spellings are salvietas and salvetas.[2][1]

Etymology

It is from Latin salvus + -tās, formed in Medieval Latin.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates its first record to a charter of 986.[1] Its first sense is the inviolability of a place, its right of sanctuary.[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is the protected status of a place, which no pursuer may violate: the right of asylum.[2][3] Du Cange explains it as an immunity that rulers granted to a place, a church or a monastery.[4] From this it came to name the protected place itself, which Niermeyer glosses with French sauveté.[2]

British documents use it for a sanctuary area within fixed bounds, inside which no one fleeing there may be pursued.[3] In the humanist period Coluccio Salutati still used it in a public letter of 1375 in the sense of immunity.[5]

Timeline

  • 986 – First recorded in a charter.[1]
  • 1027 – A grant to the church of the Holy Cross speaks of the salvitas of that place.[3]
  • 1375 – Coluccio Salutati uses it in a public letter for an immunity.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Medieval Latin) The inviolability of a place; the right of sanctuary or asylum.[2][3]
  2. (Medieval Latin) An immunity granted to a place or religious house.[4][5]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A place that enjoys the right of sanctuary.[2][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f 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
  4. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
  5. ^ a b c Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de