supplicatio

Forms

supplicātiō f (genitive supplicātiōnis); third declension^[1] It is also spelled subplicātiō.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from supplicō (“to entreat, pray”) with the suffix -tiō.^[3][1] The verb comes from supplex (“suppliant”), which de Vaan explains from ⟨*sub-plVk-⟩, a root noun of the family of plicō (“to fold”), “bending upward”, from Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- (“to plait, fold”); others derive it from the root of placeō (“to please”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Plautus and Cato on;^[5] Köbler gives Cicero.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It is the offering of propitiation to a god, a public prayer or religious solemnity held after fortunate or unfortunate public events, a day set apart for it.^[3][2][1] Especially it is the thanksgiving decreed by the senate after a victory, as Cicero's senate that refused one to Gabinius.^[3][2][1] The TLL notes it is absent from Pliny's Natural History, and that among the poets only Lucretius, Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, Valerius Flaccus and Silius use it.^[5]

Church Latin glosses it “prayer, supplication, religious act”.^[7] English supplication came from it, through Old French and directly, in the late 14th century.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[5][6]
• 234–149 BC – Cato.^[5][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a thanksgiving refused to Gabinius.^[3][6]
• late 14th century – English supplication.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A public prayer to the gods, a day of propitiation.^[3][2][1]
2. A public thanksgiving (after a victory).^[3][2][1]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Prayer, supplication.^[7][1]

Related words

• supplicō
• supplex
• supplicium
• plicō
• English supplication

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com