stipendiarius

Forms

stipendiārius (feminine stipendiāria, neuter stipendiārium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin stīpendium (“pay, tribute”) + -ārius.^[2][3] De Vaan explains ⟨stīpendium⟩ as a haplology of a compound of stips (“small coin, payment”) and pendō (“to weigh, pay”); he thinks ⟨stips⟩ first meant a stalk, from Proto-Italic *stip- (“stalk”), though what object was used for payment is unknown.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[3] who speaks of the allies and tributaries of the Roman people.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It was used of subject states and peoples that paid tribute in cash, originally to meet the costs of an occupying army:^[2] Caesar writes that the Aedui had been made tributary to Ariovistus, and Livy of making Italy tributary to Africa.^[2][5] Lewis and Short note that the money tribute was felt to be more humiliating than one paid in kind.^[6] As a noun, stīpendiāriī were tributaries, as in Cicero and Tacitus.^[2][6] The jurist Gaius uses it of estates in the provinces of the Roman people, as against the tributary estates in the emperor's provinces, and Cicero of the fixed tax laid on the Spaniards and most Carthaginians.^[2]

It also meant serving for pay: Livy says the Romans changed their shields once they began to receive pay, the Bellum Africum has paid cohorts, and Tacitus writes of the villa of Cruptorix, once a mercenary.^[2][5]

Medieval Latin used it for property assigned to the upkeep of a religious community, for things relating to prebends or held in fief, and for a dependant kept in the lord's household and bound to daily service; as a noun it meant a mercenary, and the feminine a prostitute.^[7] British writers used it of tributary peoples, of mercenaries and of wage workers.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the tributaries of Rome.^[2][3]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of the Aedui made tributary.^[2][3]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of soldiers receiving pay.^[2][3]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of a former mercenary.^[2][3]
• 140–180 AD – Gaius uses it of provincial estates.^[2][3]
• 1120–1141 – Orderic Vitalis uses it of the Normans as mercenaries.^[8][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Serving for pay; mercenary.^[2][6]
2. Paying tribute in money, tributary.^[2][6]
3. (of provincial estates) Liable to tax.^[2]
4. (of a tax) Fixed, paid in money.^[2][5]
5. (Medieval Latin) Assigned to the upkeep of a religious community; relating to prebends; held in fief.^[7]

Noun

1. A tributary, a subject who pays tribute.^[2][6]
2. A hired soldier.^[2][8]
3. (Medieval Latin) A dependant kept in the lord's household and bound to daily service.^[7]

Related words

• stīpendium
• stips
• vectīgālis
• tribūtārius

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
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