obaeratus Latin · revision 34611

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=116–27 BC, Varro|origins=la aes}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ɔ.bae̯ˈraː.tʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [o.beˈraː.tus]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''obaerātus''' (feminine obaerāta, neuter obaerātum); first/second-declension adjective^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is formed from [[m|la|ob|t=on account of]] and [[m|la|aes|t=bronze, money]] with the suffix [[m|la|-ātus]],^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) like [[m|la|aerātus]].^(TLL) Varro already connects it with the word for money, speaking of a man bound to work off a debt.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879) [[m|la|aes]] goes back to [[itc-pro|*ajos]] and [[ine-pro|*h₂ei-os|t=bronze]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Varro uses it in the ''De lingua Latina'' to explain ''nexus'', a free man who owed his labour as a slave until he had paid a debt;^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL) Cicero, in the ''De re publica'', and Caesar use the plural as a noun, “debtors”.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ As a noun it names debtors, often with clients or exiles: Caesar tells how Orgetorix gathered all his clients and ''obaerati'',^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL) and Livy lists ''exules, obaerati, capitalia ausi'', exiles, debtors and men who had dared capital crimes.^(TLL) Tacitus speaks of debtors taking refuge in a temple from their creditors.^(TLL)

+

+ As an adjective, “in debt”, it appears in Livy, Seneca, Suetonius and Tacitus, who has the comparative ''obaeratior''.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Seneca uses it figuratively of being indebted for kindnesses,^(TLL) and Ambrose of the debt of sin inherited from Adam.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro explains it.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the noun “debtors”.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of the debtors of Orgetorix.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it as an adjective and a noun.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose uses it of the debt of sin.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # In [[m|en|debt]], burdened with debt.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(figurative)'' [[m|en|indebted|alt=Indebted]] (for kindnesses; in Christian writers, for sin).^(TLL)

+

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|debtor]], especially one bound to work off a debt.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}