vulgatus

Forms

vulgātus (feminine vulgāta, neuter vulgātum, comparative vulgātior, superlative vulgātissimus, adverb vulgātē); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It is also spelled volgātus.^[2][3]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the participle from Latin vulgō² (“to make public, spread abroad”).^[2][1] The verb is formed from vulgus (“the common people”), which de Vaan thinks may go back to Proto-Italic *wolgo- or *welgos-, with no further etymology.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is in Plautus,^[2][5] whose Epidicus has nil moror vetera et vulgata verba, “I don't care for old and common words”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means common, ordinary or popular: Cicero uses it in his Aratea of a constellation's common name, and Columella, Lucan and Pliny the Elder of ordinary things; in the jurists it describes regular, ordinary legal rules.^[2] It also means well known: Livy speaks of the more widely told version of a story, Ovid of a shepherd's well-known loves, and Gellius has vulgatum est, it is common knowledge.^[2][6] Of prostitutes it means open to all, as in Livy and Valerius Maximus.^[2][6] It can be disparaging, banal or commonplace, as in Fronto and Gellius, and also means widely occurring, as when Celsus calls an illness of the stomach very common.^[2] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means common, usual, public.^[7] In Late Latin it described the popular edition of the Bible, vulgata editio, and English Vulgate, from about 1600, comes from Medieval Latin Vulgata.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of common words.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a constellation's common name.^[2][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses the comparative of a widely told story.^[2][5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses the superlative of a very common illness.^[2][5]
• c. 1600 – English Vulgate comes from it.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Common, ordinary, popular; of legal rules, regular.^[2][6]
2. Well known, celebrated;^[2][6] vulgatum est, it is common knowledge.^[2][6]
3. Of prostitutes, open to all, common.^[2][6]
4. Banal, commonplace.^[2]
5. Widely occurring, frequent.^[2]

Word family

• vulgātē

Usage notes

A separate fourth-declension noun vulgātus, -ūs, “a making known, publishing”, is found in Sidonius.^[6][3][1]

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 r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com