venditio

Forms

vēnditiō f (genitive vēnditiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin vēndō (“to sell”) + -tiō.^[2][1] De Vaan explains vēndō as a shortened vēnum with dō (“to give”), “to give for sale”; vēnum goes back to Proto-Italic *wesno- and Proto-Indo-European *ues-no- (“price”), with cognates such as Sanskrit वस्न (vasná-, “price, value”) and Ancient Greek ὦνος (ônos, “price”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Varro.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

It is the act of selling, a sale: Cicero speaks of the sale of a man's property and of proscriptions and sales, and Seneca defines a sale as the transfer of one's own thing and one's rights in it to another.^[5][2] By metonymy the jurists use it of the document recording a sale.^[2] In medieval Latin it is a deed of sale, a payment to a lord for his consent to the transfer of a holding, and a toll on the sale of goods.^[6] Köbler records it in the Frankish Formulae Andecavenses of the end of the 6th century.^[4] Church Latin glosses it selling, sale.^[7]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro.^[3][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the sale of property.^[5][4]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca defines a sale.^[5][4]
• end of the 6th century – the Formulae Andecavenses.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of selling, a sale.^[2][5][1][7]
2. (law) The document recording a sale.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) A deed of sale; a payment for a lord's consent to the transfer of a holding; a toll on the sale of goods.^[6]

Related words

• vēndō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d 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
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson