stipulus

Forms

stipulus (feminine stipula, neuter stipulum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

Georges and Köbler take it to be from Latin stīpō (“to press together, pack”).^[2][3] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *steyp- (“stiff, erect”) and compares stips and the English word stiff.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is known only as an old word explained by later jurists: the Sententiae of Julius Paulus and Justinian's Institutiones report that among the ancients what was firm was called stipulum (stipulum apud veteres firmum appellabatur).^[4][2][5]

Semantic evolution

Wiktionary labels it Old Latin,^[1] and Gaffiot glosses it with firmus.^[6]

Timeline

• first half of the 3rd century AD – The Sententiae of Julius Paulus explain the word.^[2][5][3]
• c. 533 AD – Justinian's Institutiones report it as the old word for “firm”.^[4][2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Old Latin) Firm, stable.^[4][1]

Related words

• stipulor
• stīpō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.