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pactum. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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pactum in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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Latin
Etymology 1
From pangō.
Pronunciation
Participle
pāctum
- inflection of pāctus (“fixed, fastened”):
- accusative masculine singular
- nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular
Etymology 2
Originally from pacīscor (“to arrange by negotiation”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to fix; settle”), whence also pāx (“peace”). Not easily distinguishable from Etymology 1 already in Proto-Indo-European, which might reflect an eventual merger of a split outcome of the same root.
Pronunciation
Note: uncertainty about derivation likely entailed variation in the length of the /a/; however, vowel reduction in compectum indicates that it was originally short.
Participle
pactum
- inflection of pactus (“arranged by negotiation, agreed”):
- accusative masculine singular
- nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular
Noun
pactum n (genitive pactī); second declension
- an agreement, bargain, pact
- Synonyms: compositum, condiciō, stipulātiō
- (in adverbial expressions) a means, manner, method, consideration
- Synonyms: modus, ratiō, via
- quō pactō possum vīvere sī..? ― how can I live when..?
Cicero,
In Catilinam I 17:
- Servi mehercule mei si me isto pacto metuerent ut te metuunt omnes cives tui, domum meam relinquendam putarem
- If my servants feared me in such a manner as all your countrymen fear you, I should think that I need to leave my house
Declension
Second-declension noun (neuter).
Descendants
References
- “pango, pago, paco” in volume 10, part 1, column 203, line 13 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present
- “pactum; pactus” on page 1410 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)
- De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “pangō; pāx”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 442; 452
Further reading
- “pactum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “pactum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- pactum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- pactum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.