vador

Forms

vador (present infinitive vadārī or vadārier, perfect active vadātus sum); first conjugation, deponent^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin vas¹ (“surety, bail”) + -ō, a deponent verb.^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces the noun to Proto-Italic *woss (genitive *waþos) and to a root noun Proto-Indo-European *uodʰ-s, “the one who leads the defendant to court”.^[4] Cognates are Lithuanian vãdas (“guarantee, surety”), Old Norse veð (“surety”) and Old English wedd, the last two from Proto-Germanic *u̯adia-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[4] as a legal term for binding someone over by bail to appear in court: in the Persa a character says vadatur hic me, “he is binding me over”.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The plaintiff is the subject: he accepts sureties from the other party that he will appear in court on a set day, and the verb can mean simply to bring an action against someone.^[2] Cicero uses it in the speech for Quinctius and in the Verrines, and Livy writes of an accuser who bound the accused over with many sureties.^[3][6] The perfect participle vadātus has a passive sense, “bound over to appear”: Lucilius has it of a trickster, and Horace has the ablative vadato, “bail having been given”.^[2][3][6] Figuratively the participle means bound or pledged in general: Plautus has someone held vadatum amore, bound by love, and Apuleius uses it of a life pledged or devoted to a goddess.^[2][3][5] Gellius uses the infinitive as an impersonal passive.^[2] Ecclesiastical Latin keeps the sense of binding over by bail.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Persa and the Aulularia.^[3][8]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses the participle vadātus.^[2][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in his speeches.^[3][8]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses the participle of a devoted life.^[2][3][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (law) To bind over by bail to appear in court; to accept sureties from; to bring an action against.^[2][3][7]
2. (perfect participle, passive) Bound over to appear in court;^[2][6] (figurative) bound, pledged, devoted.^[2][3][5]

Related words

• vadimōnium
• praes

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de