Latin dubenus ‘dominus’: an attempt at etymology
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Luca Rigobianco
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to propose an etymology of the Latin word dubenus, attested only in Paulus’ epitome of Festus as an archaic word meaning ‘dominus’. After showing the genuineness of the tradition, I intend to account for such a gloss from a linguistic point of view. Abstractly, dubenus can be analysed as a noun or a substantive adjective derived with the suffix -ēnofrom a base *dubo-, nomen actionis in -bo- < *-bho- or in -mo- < *-mo- (with subsequent dissimilation of -m- to -b-) from the base du- < *deH3w- ‘to give’. As an alternative, dubenus can be a writing error for duhenus, i.e. duenos ‘bonus’ (< *deH3w-eno-) with h as a marker of hiatus and -us for -os as a normalized ending. In both cases, dubenus/duhenus would mean ‘dominus’ in relation to the notion of giving (*dubeno- ‘the one of the giving’, *dueno- ‘provided with gifts’), in accordance with a semantic evolution which can be suitably framed from a historical perspective. Specifically, it is possible to hypothesize that, in early Roman society, the dominus was the one who gave (and received) gifts in order to maintain both social relationships existing with his peers and hierarchies within society. More generally, dubenus/duhenus ‘dominus’ could be considered as a linguistic relic of an Indo-European ideological system in which, as shown by Benveniste, social status was determined by the exchange of gifts through a practice similar to the potlatch.
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to propose an etymology of the Latin word dubenus, attested only in Paulus’ epitome of Festus as an archaic word meaning ‘dominus’. After showing the genuineness of the tradition, I intend to account for such a gloss from a linguistic point of view. Abstractly, dubenus can be analysed as a noun or a substantive adjective derived with the suffix -ēnofrom a base *dubo-, nomen actionis in -bo- < *-bho- or in -mo- < *-mo- (with subsequent dissimilation of -m- to -b-) from the base du- < *deH3w- ‘to give’. As an alternative, dubenus can be a writing error for duhenus, i.e. duenos ‘bonus’ (< *deH3w-eno-) with h as a marker of hiatus and -us for -os as a normalized ending. In both cases, dubenus/duhenus would mean ‘dominus’ in relation to the notion of giving (*dubeno- ‘the one of the giving’, *dueno- ‘provided with gifts’), in accordance with a semantic evolution which can be suitably framed from a historical perspective. Specifically, it is possible to hypothesize that, in early Roman society, the dominus was the one who gave (and received) gifts in order to maintain both social relationships existing with his peers and hierarchies within society. More generally, dubenus/duhenus ‘dominus’ could be considered as a linguistic relic of an Indo-European ideological system in which, as shown by Benveniste, social status was determined by the exchange of gifts through a practice similar to the potlatch.
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to propose an etymology of the Latin word dubenus, attested only in Paulus’ epitome of Festus as an archaic word meaning ‘dominus’. After showing the genuineness of the tradition, I intend to account for such a gloss from a linguistic point of view. Abstractly, dubenus can be analysed as a noun or a substantive adjective derived with the suffix -ēnofrom a base *dubo-, nomen actionis in -bo- < *-bho- or in -mo- < *-mo- (with subsequent dissimilation of -m- to -b-) from the base du- < *deH3w- ‘to give’. As an alternative, dubenus can be a writing error for duhenus, i.e. duenos ‘bonus’ (< *deH3w-eno-) with h as a marker of hiatus and -us for -os as a normalized ending. In both cases, dubenus/duhenus would mean ‘dominus’ in relation to the notion of giving (*dubeno- ‘the one of the giving’, *dueno- ‘provided with gifts’), in accordance with a semantic evolution which can be suitably framed from a historical perspective. Specifically, it is possible to hypothesize that, in early Roman society, the dominus was the one who gave (and received) gifts in order to maintain both social relationships existing with his peers and hierarchies within society. More generally, dubenus/duhenus ‘dominus’ could be considered as a linguistic relic of an Indo-European ideological system in which, as shown by Benveniste, social status was determined by the exchange of gifts through a practice similar to the potlatch.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents VII
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Words
-
Lexicography and semantics
- Constitutus = καϑεστώς: un aspect du supplétisme du verbe « être » 3
- Exploring the semantic complexity of the voces mediae: magus, magicus, and magia 21
- La rivalidad entre praeses y praesidens 36
- Les emplois des « quantifieurs » quantus, quam multus, quot et de leurs corrélatifs en latin classique 50
- Tempus mutatur: analysing collocations of tempus ‘time’ with distributional semantic models 69
- Análisis y causas de la diversidad semántica y lexicológica del adjetivo uiridis 86
- Authorial error and the dictionary 101
- Les verbes de déplacement en latin : préverbation et arguments 110
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Word formation and etymology
- Auctor adjectif verbal dans la périphrase auctor sum ‘conseiller’ 135
- Secondary forms reanalysed as primary ones: the crētus-class in Latin 149
- Origen y significado de dēsīderāre: nostalgia y deseo desde Plauto 161
- Latin dubenus ‘dominus’: an attempt at etymology 178
- Fors and fortūna: linguistic and cultural aspects 192
- The world as a yawning gap. New insights into the etymology of Lat. mundus ‘world’ 206
- (When) inflection needs derivation: a word formation lexicon for Latin 224
- What’s beyond ‘inchoatives’? Derivation types on the basis of -sc- verbs 240
- Towards a morpho-syntactic analysis of -ī-scō and -ā-scō verbs 258
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Linguistic systems in contact
- Les mots latins d’origine grecque avec diffusion panromane: comment et pourquoi? 277
- Forms and functions of Greek words in Late Latin literary texts: a corpus-based approach 294
- Greek in Donatus’ Terence commentaries 312
- Verb conjugation selection in macaronic Latin: a corpus-based analysis 329
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Ancient discourse on language
- Clausula: un terme technique de la métrique à la morphologie 351
- Linguistic terminology in Varro 368
- The typology of linguistic metaphor in first-century CE Roman thought 384
-
Sounds
- The use of initial h- in the writing-tablets from Roman Britain 401
- The merger of /ō/ and /ŭ/: a computational take on the inscriptions of Gaul (330–730 CE) 419
- Patterns of prosodic distribution of Latin long vowels 436
- Index 453
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents VII
-
Words
-
Lexicography and semantics
- Constitutus = καϑεστώς: un aspect du supplétisme du verbe « être » 3
- Exploring the semantic complexity of the voces mediae: magus, magicus, and magia 21
- La rivalidad entre praeses y praesidens 36
- Les emplois des « quantifieurs » quantus, quam multus, quot et de leurs corrélatifs en latin classique 50
- Tempus mutatur: analysing collocations of tempus ‘time’ with distributional semantic models 69
- Análisis y causas de la diversidad semántica y lexicológica del adjetivo uiridis 86
- Authorial error and the dictionary 101
- Les verbes de déplacement en latin : préverbation et arguments 110
-
Word formation and etymology
- Auctor adjectif verbal dans la périphrase auctor sum ‘conseiller’ 135
- Secondary forms reanalysed as primary ones: the crētus-class in Latin 149
- Origen y significado de dēsīderāre: nostalgia y deseo desde Plauto 161
- Latin dubenus ‘dominus’: an attempt at etymology 178
- Fors and fortūna: linguistic and cultural aspects 192
- The world as a yawning gap. New insights into the etymology of Lat. mundus ‘world’ 206
- (When) inflection needs derivation: a word formation lexicon for Latin 224
- What’s beyond ‘inchoatives’? Derivation types on the basis of -sc- verbs 240
- Towards a morpho-syntactic analysis of -ī-scō and -ā-scō verbs 258
-
Linguistic systems in contact
- Les mots latins d’origine grecque avec diffusion panromane: comment et pourquoi? 277
- Forms and functions of Greek words in Late Latin literary texts: a corpus-based approach 294
- Greek in Donatus’ Terence commentaries 312
- Verb conjugation selection in macaronic Latin: a corpus-based analysis 329
-
Ancient discourse on language
- Clausula: un terme technique de la métrique à la morphologie 351
- Linguistic terminology in Varro 368
- The typology of linguistic metaphor in first-century CE Roman thought 384
-
Sounds
- The use of initial h- in the writing-tablets from Roman Britain 401
- The merger of /ō/ and /ŭ/: a computational take on the inscriptions of Gaul (330–730 CE) 419
- Patterns of prosodic distribution of Latin long vowels 436
- Index 453
