tribunatus

Forms

tribūnātus m (genitive tribūnātūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from tribūnus (“tribune”) with the suffix -ātus.^[2][1] ⟨Tribūnus⟩ comes from tribus (“tribe”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *triþu- (“tripartite entity”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *tri-dʰh₁-u- (“tripartite division”), cognate with Umbrian trifu (“district”).^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Cicero as its first author.^[3] The OLD also quotes a speech of the orator Crassus: quod eam lēgem in tribūnātū tulistī, “because you carried that law in your tribunate”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the office of tribune, its term or its exercise: of a military tribune, as Cicero's dē tribūnātū mīlitārī, and of a tribune of the plebs, as Cotta, who sought the tribunate of the plebs, or Sestius' tribunate.^[2][5] Cicero asks whether the augurs overturn a man's whole tribunate.^[2]

In Medieval Latin it is the district of a vicārius, a viscounty, and a manorial district.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the tribunates of the plebs and of the soldiers.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The office of tribune, tribuneship (of the plebs or of the soldiers).^[2][1][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) The district of a vicārius; a viscounty; a manorial district.^[6]

Related words

• tribūnus
• tribus
• tribūnīcius

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 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