vastatio

Forms

vāstātiō f (genitive vāstātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin vāstō (“to lay waste”) + -tiō,^[2][1] a noun of action from the verb, which Köbler refers back to the adjective vāstus (“empty, desolate”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero, of the laying waste of fields and of a general devastation.^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

Classical writers use it for the ravaging of farmland, houses, villas and whole districts in war:^[2][4] Plancus promises to defend Italy from devastation, and Tacitus speaks of a kingdom untouched by ravaging.^[2] Seneca applies it to the destruction of woods by hunting.^[2]

In British Medieval Latin it kept the sense of ravaging in war, from Gildas and Bede on, and in legal texts it meant the damage or destruction of crops, woods or property, the “waste” of English law.^[5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of laying waste fields and of general devastation.^[2][3]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of the threatened ravaging of Roman territory.^[2][3]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus speaks of a kingdom untouched by ravaging.^[2][3]
• 1091 – The Norman customs forbid any “vastatio” in a dispute over land.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The laying waste of territory, devastation, ravaging.^[2][4]
2. (Medieval Latin, law) Damage to or destruction of crops, woods or property, waste.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press