spoliatio Latin · revision 34478

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=81–43 BC, Cicero|origins=la spolium}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''spoliātiō''' ''f'' (genitive spoliātiōnis); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|spoliō|-tiō|t1=to strip, rob]], a noun of action.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) The verb is formed from [[m|la|spolium|t=skin, hide; booty]],^(Wiktionary) which de Vaan reconstructs as [[itc-pro|*spoli(o)-|t=skin, hide]] and [[ine-pro|*spol(H)-i(o)-|t=what is split, stripped off]]; he takes it to be probably a derivative of a root [[m|ine-pro|*(s)pel(H)-|t=to split, cleave]], whose exact form is hard to establish.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler records it first in Cicero,^(Köbler 2010) who speaks in the Verrines of ''oppidorum fanorumque spoliationes'', the plundering of towns and shrines.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In its literal sense it is the plundering of a place or the robbing of a person: Livy uses it of the robbing of sacred things, and Apuleius of a miserable robbery.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Cicero also uses it figuratively of being deprived of something, as in ''spoliatio consulatus'', the stripping away of the consulship, and ''spoliatio dignitatis'', the loss of one's standing.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913) In Ecclesiastical Latin it means robbing, stripping, plundering.^(Stelten 1995) Medieval writers in Britain use it of stripping or despoiling, especially by violence or against the law, of the plundering of churches, and of Christ's harrowing of hell.^(DMLBS) English took over [[m|en|spoliation]] from it, through Anglo-French, around 1400.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the plundering of towns and shrines and of being deprived of the consulship.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of the robbing of sacred things.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of a miserable robbery.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * Medieval Latin – British writers use it of unlawful despoiling, also of Christ's harrowing of hell.^(DMLBS)

+ * c. 1400 – English borrows it as ''spoliacioun'', later [[m|en|spoliation]].^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The act of [[m|en|plunder|alt=plundering]] or [[m|en|despoil|alt=despoiling]] a place; the act of [[m|en|rob|alt=robbing]] a person.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # The act of depriving someone of something, divesting.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)

+ # ''(Ecclesiastical Latin)'' Robbing, stripping, plundering.^(Stelten 1995)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' Despoiling or depriving, especially by violence or unlawfully.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|spoliation]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}