viaticum

English

Etymology

From Latin viāticum (“travelling-money, provisions for a journey”), from viāticus (“of a road or journey”), from via (“road”). Doublet of voyage.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /vʌɪˈatɪkəm/

Noun

viaticum (plural viaticums or viatica)

1. (especially Catholicism) The Eucharist, when given to a person who is dying or one in danger of death.
   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (nonfiction), Folio Society; republished as Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century England, Penguin Books, 2003, →ISBN, page 37:

     […] from Anglo-Saxon times there had been a deep conviction that to receive the viaticum was a virtual death sentence which would make subsequent recovery impossible.

2. (often figurative) Provisions, money, or other supplies given to someone setting off on a long journey.
   • 1885, “Night 20”, in Sir Richard Burton, transl., The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (fiction), Kama Shastra Society, translation of أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ [ʔalfu laylatin walaylatun, One Thousand and One Nights] (in Arabic); republished 1978, →ISBN:

     Towards night-fall he entered a town called Sa’adiyah where he alighted and took out somewhat of his viaticum and ate.

   • 1971, Anthony Burgess, M/F (fiction), Jonathan Cape; republished Penguin Books, 2004, →ISBN, page 184:

     That viaticum I had been made to drink had undoubtedly been spiked with cantharides or something.

3. A portable altar.

   (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)

Translations

Eucharist

• Bulgarian: последно причастие n (posledno pričastie)
• Danish: viaticum
• Dutch: viaticum (nl)
• Esperanto: viatiko
• French: viatique (fr) m
• German: Viatikum n
• Italian: viatico (it) m
• Old Norse: leiðarnest n
• Polish: wiatyk (pl) m
• Spanish: viático (es) m
• Swedish: viaticum (sv)

supplies for journey

• Bulgarian: храна за из път f (hrana za iz pǎt)
• French: viatique (fr) m
• Old Norse: nest n
• Polish: dieta (pl) f
• Spanish: viático (es) m
• Swedish: vägkost c, resepenning c, viaticum (sv)

Further reading

• viaticum on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Latin

Etymology

Substantivization of the neuter form of the adjective viāticus (“pertaining to a journey or travelling”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /u̯iˈaː.ti.kum/, [u̯iˈäːt̪ɪkʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /viˈa.ti.kum/, [viˈäːt̪ikum]

Noun

viāticum n (genitive viāticī); second declension

1. travelling-money; provision for a journey
2. (figuratively) a journey
3. resources; means
4. money made abroad, especially as a soldier, or used to travel abroad

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	viāticum	viātica
genitive	viāticī	viāticōrum
dative	viāticō	viāticīs
accusative	viāticum	viātica
ablative	viāticō	viāticīs
vocative	viāticum	viātica

Derived terms

• viāticātus
• viāticulum

Related terms

• via
• viāticus
• viātor, viatrix
• viātōrius

Descendants

• → English: viaticum
• → French: viatique
• → German: Viatikum
• → Italian: viatico
• Old French: voiage
  • Anglo-Norman: viage
    • → Middle English: viage
      • ⇒ English: voyage (influenced by Modern French)
  • French: voyage
    • → Romanian: voiaj
• Old Occitan: viatge
  • Catalan: viatge
  • Occitan: viatge
  • → Italian: viaggio
  • → Piedmontese: viagi
  • → Portuguese: viagem (or through Catalan)
  • → Sicilian: viaggiu
  • → Spanish: viaje (or through Catalan)
    • → Cebuano: biyahe
    • → Masbatenyo: biyahe
    • → Tagalog: biyahe
• Piedmontese: viàtic
• → Portuguese: viático
• Romansch: viadi, viedi (Puter), vieadi (Sutsilvan)
• → Spanish: viático
  • → Cebuano: biyatiko
  • → Tagalog: biyatiko

References

• “viaticum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “viaticum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• viaticum 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)
• viaticum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “viaticum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “viaticum”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin