tralaticius

Forms

trālātīcius (feminine trālātīcia, neuter trālātīcium); first/second-declension adjective^[1] The fuller spelling trānslātīcius is also found, and the OLD enters the word under it;^[2][3] Pliny the Elder has -itius.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin trālātus + -īcius, the first element being a variant of trānslātus (“carried across, handed on”),^[1] the perfect participle of trānsferō “to carry across”.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest examples are in Varro's On the Latin Language, of words used in a transferred sense,^[2][4] and in Cicero's letters, of a traditional clause (alterum caput est trālātīcium).^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Besides the grammatical sense, the word meant handed down from one's predecessors, traditional:^[2] in the language of law and public life a trālātīcium ēdictum was an edict that a magistrate took over from those before him, as Cicero says of an old edict in the Verrines.^[2][3][6] Phaedrus speaks of gods talking mōre trālātīciō, after the traditional fashion.^[2][5]

From this it came to mean commonplace, ordinary: Caelius writes to Cicero of the usual course of affairs as haec trālātīcia,^[3][6] Petronius has a far from ordinary ugliness, Pliny the Elder says that birth in the eighth month is common in Egypt, and Suetonius speaks of an ordinary funeral.^[2][5] The adverb trānslātīciē “carelessly” is found in the Digest.^[3]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of words in a transferred sense.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a traditional clause.^[2][5][4]
• c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus has mōre trālātīciō.^[2][4]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it of ordinary ugliness.^[2][5][4]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius speaks of an ordinary funeral.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of words) Used in a transferred sense, metaphorical.^[2][6]
2. Handed down from one's predecessors, traditional, customary.^[2][3][1]
3. Commonplace, ordinary, usual.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn