compendium Latin · revision 32385

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=la pendō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [kɔmˈpɛn.di.ũː]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [komˈpɛn.di.um]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''compendium''' ''n'' (genitive compendiī or compendī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+ It is also spelled ''conpendium''.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is formed from [[m|la|con-|t=together]], [[m|la|pendō|t=to weigh]] and [[m|la|-ium]], literally “what is weighed together”;^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Lewis & Short 1879) the TLL compares [[m|la|dispendium|t=expense]].^(TLL) Lewis & Short say it first belonged to the language of household economy.^(Lewis & Short 1879) De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of [[m|la|pendō]], which he traces to [[itc-pro|*pend-e/o-|t=to hang, weigh]]; most handbooks take the root as a variant of [[ine-pro|*(s)penh₁-|t=to spin, weave]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Plautus has it first, in the ''Bacchides'', ironically of a gain hardly to be wished for at someone's age: the impudence he has acquired.^(OLD 2012)^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Its first senses are gain and saving: Plautus' characters tell each other to “put it down to saving”, and Pliny the Elder writes that careful thrift found ways of saving.^(OLD 2012) From saving time and effort it came to mean a shorter way, a short cut, as when Pliny says that a merchant found a short cut, and Manilius that heaven does not love short cuts.^(OLD 2012) In the legal and grammatical writers it is an abridgement or a shortened way of writing, as in Ulpian and Terentianus Maurus.^(OLD 2012) In Medieval Latin it also meant property, a piece of furniture, a tenure of land by a precarial contract, and a prebend.^(Niermeyer 1976) As a place name, Compendium is Compiègne in northern France, a villa of the Suessiones in Gregory of Tours.^(Wiktionary)^(TLL)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of gain and saving.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of saving and of a merchant's short cut.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * before 223 AD – Ulpian of an abridgement.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1580s – English [[m|en|compendium]] is borrowed from a medieval use of it.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|gain|alt=Gain]], [[m|en|profit]]; compendī facere, to gain.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A saving; compendī facere, to save; ponere ad compendium, to count as saved.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A shorter route, a [[m|en|shortcut]]; figuratively, an easy method.^(OLD 2012)

+ # An [[m|en|abridgement]]; a concise way of writing, abbreviation; in the plural, shorthand.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A compendious device.^(OLD 2012)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' Property; a piece of furniture.^(Niermeyer 1976)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' A tenure of land held by a precarial contract; a [[m|en|prebend]].^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[compendiārius]]

+ * [[compendio]]

+ * [[compendiōsus]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[pendo|alt=pendō]]

+ * [[dispendium]]

+ * [[compendo|alt=compendō]]

+ * [[en|compendium]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Döderlein distinguishes the words for gain: [[lucrum]] is gain earned by oneself, [[emolumentum|alt=ēmolumentum]] gain that comes without effort, [[quaestus]] the steady earnings of an occupation, and compendium a single, considerable gain in trade, the opposite of [[dispendium]].^(Döderlein 1874)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}