dolus

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dolus (“deceit, trickery”); akin to Ancient Greek δόλος (dólos, “bait, ruse”). Compare dolose, dolosity.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdəʊləs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈdoʊləs/
• Rhymes: -əʊləs

Noun

dolus (countable and uncountable, plural doli)

1. (law) Evil intent: malice or fraud.
   • 1849, James G. Butler, A Summary of the Roman Civil Law:

     Every actual delict presupposes a dolus or culpa, with the concomitant consciousness and prepense

Related terms

• dolose
• dolosity
• dolus specialis

References

• “dolus”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Sudol, louds, ludos

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈdɔ.ɫʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈdɔː.lus]

Etymology 1

From Proto-Indo-European *dolh₁os. Cognate to Oscan [script needed] (dolom, “intention, ruse”) and Ancient Greek δόλος (dólos), but the Italic terms may be borrowings from the latter.

Noun

dolus m (genitive dolī); second declension

1. deception, deceit, fraud, guile, treachery, trickery

   Synonyms: dēceptiō, perfidia, fraus, maleficium, stratēgēma, ars

   • 166 BCE, Publius Terentius Afer, Andria 582–584:

     SĪMŌ: Ego dūdum nōn nihil veritūs sum, Dāve, abs tē, nē facerēs idem
     quod volgus servōrum solet dolīs: ut mē dēlūderēs
     proptereā quod amat fīlius.

     SIMO: For a long time, I have feared not a little from you, Davus, lest you do the same thing
     that the common run of slaves usually does with their trickery: that you would deceive me
     just because my son is in love.

   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Vergilius, Aeneis 1.130:

     Nec latuēre dolī frātrem Iūnōnis et īrae.

     Nor did the deceit and wrath of Juno escape her brother.

2. evil intent; malice; wrongdoing (with a view to the consequences)
3. device, artifice, stratagem, trap

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	dolus	dolī
genitive	dolī	dolōrum
dative	dolō	dolīs
accusative	dolum	dolōs
ablative	dolō	dolīs
vocative	dole	dolī

Derived terms

• dolōsus
• dolum faciō
• subdolus

Related terms

• dolōsē
• dolōsitās

Descendants

Descendants

• → Catalan: dol
• → English: dolus
• → French: dol
• → Italian: dolo
• → Portuguese: dolo
• → Romanian: dol
• → Sicilian: dolu
• → Spanish: dolo

Etymology 2

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *delh₁-

Proto-Indo-European *-yeti

Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti

Proto-Indo-European *dolh₁éyeti

Proto-Italic *doleō

Latin doleō

Proto-Indo-European *-os

Proto-Indo-European *-s

Proto-Indo-European *-ōs

Proto-Italic *-ōs

Latin -or

Latin dolor

Latin dolus

From dolor via change of declension type, possibly first as a neuter of the same declension (tempus, temporis). Related to doleō (“to hurt, grieve”).

Noun

dolus m (genitive dolī); second declension (Late Latin)

1. alternative form of dolor (“pain, grief”)

Related terms

• cordolium

Descendants

• Balkano-Romance:
  • Aromanian: dor
  • Romanian: dor
• Italo-Dalmatian:
  • Italian: duolo, dolo
  • Venetan: diol
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Friulian: dûl
• Gallo-Italic:
  • Piedmontese: deur, deul
• Northern Gallo-Romance:
  • Old French: duel, dol
    • French: deuil
    • Norman: deû (Continental), deu (Jersey)
• Southern Gallo-Romance:
  • Catalan: dol
  • Occitan: dòl
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: doo
    • Galician: dó
    • Portuguese: dó
  • Spanish: duelo

References

• “dolus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “dolus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "dolus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • by craft: per dolum (B. G. 4. 13)
    
  • by the aid of fraud and lies: dolis et fallaciis (Sall. Cat. 11. 2)
    

Middle Irish

Etymology

do- +‎ lés (compare solus, from Old Irish solus).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (earlier) /ˈd̪ˠolus/, (later) /ˈd̪ˠoləs/

Adjective

dolus

1. lightless, obscure

Descendants

• Irish: dolas

Mutation

Mutation of dolus

radical	lenition	nasalization
dolus	dolus pronounced with /ð(ʲ)-/, later /ɣ(ʲ)-/	ndolus

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Middle Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “dolus”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language