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peculium. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
peculium, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
peculium in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
peculium you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin peculium. See peculiar.
Noun
peculium (plural peculia)
- (law, historical) The savings of a son or a slave, with the father's or master's consent; a little property or stock of one's own.
- A special fund for private and personal uses.
1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. , volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, ; and Archibald Constable and Co., , →OCLC:Still, however, he gained something, and it was the glory of his heart to carry it to Mr MacMorlan weekly, a slight peculium only subtracted, to supply his snuff-box and tobacco-pouch.
Further reading
- Alexander M Burrill (1851) “PECULIUM”, in A New Law Dictionary and Glossary: , volume II, New York, N.Y.: John S. Voorhies, , →OCLC, page 787, column 2: “A limited amount of money or property which a son or servant was allowed to have, separate from the accounts or stocks of his father or master; […]”
- “peculium”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Latin
Etymology
From pecū, via an unattested adjective *pecūlis (“belonging to one's livestock/property, own”).[1][2]
Pronunciation
Noun
pecūlium n (genitive pecūliī or pecūlī); second declension
- private property (originally in the form of cattle, but later in the form of savings)
Usage notes
Often used in Ancient Rome to refer to the payment a teaching slave would occasionally collect from his students.
Declension
Second-declension noun (neuter).
1Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).
Derived terms
Descendants
References
- “peculium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “peculium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- peculium 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)
- peculium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- “peculium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “peculium”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
- ^ Walde, Alois, Hofmann, Johann Baptist (1954) “pecūlium”, in Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), 3rd edition, volume II, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, page 271
- ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “pecu”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 454