supplementum

Forms

supplēmentum n (genitive supplēmentī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin suppleō (“to fill up”) + -mentum.^[2][1][3] That verb is sub- with ⟨-pleō⟩ “to fill”, which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero writes of enrolling a supplement for the legions;^[5][2] Brutus writes to him that they lack two things, money and reinforcements.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short note that its classical sense is military, the making up of a body of troops to strength and the reinforcements themselves: Caesar has a man leave the army on the pretext of raising recruits, and Livy uses it often of troops and rowers.^[5][2] In a general sense, something added to make up a whole, a supplement, it is rare and perhaps post-Augustan: Columella keeps one of twin kids to fill up the flock, and Suetonius has a horn ring as an aid to writing.^[5] In Medieval Latin it is support, sustenance and refuge.^[6] Church Latin glosses it supply, supplement, fulfilling.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of reinforcements.^[5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of recruiting.^[5][3]
• 1st century AD – Columella of replenishing a flock.^[5][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (military) A making up to strength; reinforcements, recruits.^[2][5][1]
2. Something that completes a whole, a supplement, supply.^[2][5][1][7]
3. (Medieval Latin) Support, sustenance; refuge.^[6]

Related words

• suppleō
• supplētōrium
• impleō
• English supplement

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes complēmentum, which completes and crowns a thing like a keystone, from supplēmentum, which fills gaps and supplies what is missing.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c 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 e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper