peculium

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English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin peculium. See peculiar.

Noun

peculium (plural peculia)

  1. (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.
  2. A special fund for private and personal uses.

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

  1. 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).

Case Singular Plural
Nominative pecūlium pecūlia
Genitive pecūliī
pecūlī1
pecūliōrum
Dative pecūliō pecūliīs
Accusative pecūlium pecūlia
Ablative pecūliō pecūliīs
Vocative pecūlium pecūlia

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
  1. ^ Walde, Alois, Hofmann, Johann Baptist (1954) “pecūlium”, in Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), 3rd edition, volume II, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, page 271
  2. ^ 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