spolium

English

Noun

spolium (uncountable)

1. The property of a beneficed ecclesiastic not transmissible by will.

Latin

Etymology

Referred to Proto-Indo-European *(s)pel-. See English spill.

Noun

spolium n (genitive spoliī or spolī); second declension

1. the skin or hide of an animal stripped off
2. (transferred sense) the arms or armor stripped from a defeated enemy
3. booty, prey, spoil

   Synonyms: praeda, manubia, rapīna

   • 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Proverbs.16.19:

     Melius est humiliārī cum mītibus, quam dīvidere spolia cum superbīs.

     It is better to be humbled with the meek, than to divide spoils with the proud.
     (Douay-Rheims trans., Challoner rev.: 1752 CE)

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	spolium	spolia
Genitive	spoliī spolī1	spoliōrum
Dative	spoliō	spoliīs
Accusative	spolium	spolia
Ablative	spoliō	spoliīs
Vocative	spolium	spolia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Derived terms

• spoliō
• spolia opīma

Descendants

• Aromanian: spolji
• English: spoil
• Spanish: espolio
• Catalan: espoli
• Italian: spoglio
• → Portuguese: espólio

References

• “spolium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “spolium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• spolium 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)
• spolium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “spoil”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• Julius Pokorny (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, in 3 vols, Bern, München: Francke Verlag