spoliatio

Forms

spoliātiō f (genitive spoliātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin spoliō (“to strip, rob”) + -tiō, a noun of action.^[2][1] The verb is formed from spolium (“skin, hide; booty”),^[1] which de Vaan reconstructs as Proto-Italic *spoli(o)- (“skin, hide”) and Proto-Indo-European *spol(H)-i(o)- (“what is split, stripped off”); he takes it to be probably a derivative of a root *(s)pel(H)- (“to split, cleave”), whose exact form is hard to establish.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Cicero,^[4] who speaks in the Verrines of oppidorum fanorumque spoliationes, the plundering of towns and shrines.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In its literal sense it is the plundering of a place or the robbing of a person: Livy uses it of the robbing of sacred things, and Apuleius of a miserable robbery.^[2][5] Cicero also uses it figuratively of being deprived of something, as in spoliatio consulatus, the stripping away of the consulship, and spoliatio dignitatis, the loss of one's standing.^[2][6] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means robbing, stripping, plundering.^[7] Medieval writers in Britain use it of stripping or despoiling, especially by violence or against the law, of the plundering of churches, and of Christ's harrowing of hell.^[8] English took over spoliation from it, through Anglo-French, around 1400.^[9]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the plundering of towns and shrines and of being deprived of the consulship.^[2][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of the robbing of sacred things.^[2][4]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of a miserable robbery.^[2][4]
• Medieval Latin – British writers use it of unlawful despoiling, also of Christ's harrowing of hell.^[8]
• c. 1400 – English borrows it as spoliacioun, later spoliation.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of plundering or despoiling a place; the act of robbing a person.^[2][5]
2. The act of depriving someone of something, divesting.^[2][6]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Robbing, stripping, plundering.^[7]
4. (Medieval Latin) Despoiling or depriving, especially by violence or unlawfully.^[8]

Related words

• English spoliation

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c 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
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com