emolumentum Latin · revision 32383

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=derivation|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=ine-pro *melh₂-}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''ēmolumentum''' ''n'' (genitive ēmolumentī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+ It is also spelled ''ēmolimentum''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The OLD derives it from [[m|la|ēmolō|t=to grind out]] with the suffix [[m|la|-mentum]], originally probably “the output of a mill”;^(OLD 2012) the TLL, following Walde, explains it as what the miller gets by grinding, and Döderlein too derives it from [[m|la|molō|t=to grind]].^(TLL)^(Döderlein 1874) Lewis & Short instead derive it from [[m|la|ēmōlior|t=to work out]], so that it would first mean a working out or effort.^(Lewis & Short 1879) De Vaan traces [[m|la|molō]] to [[ine-pro|*melh₂-|t=to crush, grind]] and compares [[grc|μύλη|tr=múlē|t=handmill]] and [[lt|málti|t=to grind]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The TLL finds it once each in the poets Plautus and Lucretius, and in prose from Varro and the ''Rhetorica ad Herennium'' on.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Its usual sense is advantage, benefit or gain: Cicero renders the Stoic terms [[grc|ὠφέλημα|tr=ōphélēma]] and [[grc|βλάμμα|tr=blámma]] as emolumenta and detrimenta, and says that good men are not driven to wrongdoing by any profit.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL) Especially in legal texts it is financial advantage, as in Suetonius and the jurists of the ''Digest''.^(OLD 2012) Varro once seems to use it of effort, a sense Lewis & Short connect with their etymology, and the Theodosian Code once of a building.^(Lewis & Short 1879) In Church Latin it is advantage or profit, and in Medieval Latin also an effect, progress or achievement.^(Stelten 1995)^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it once.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero of advantages opposed to harms.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius of financial gain.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * mid-15th century – English [[m|en|emolument]] is borrowed from it, partly through French.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # An [[m|en|advantage]], benefit, gain, profit.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Stelten 1995)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(law)'' Financial advantage, [[m|en|emolument]].^(OLD 2012)

+ # Effort, exertion.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' An effect; progress, achievement.^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[emolumenticius]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[molo|alt=molō]]

+ * [[en|emolument]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Döderlein distinguishes it from [[lucrum]]: lucrum is gain earned by one's own effort, the opposite of [[damnum]], while ēmolumentum is gain that falls to one without exertion, the opposite of [[detrimentum]].^(Döderlein 1874)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}