dolus

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdoʊləs/
• Rhymes: -oʊləs

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

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): /ˈdo.lus/, [ˈd̪ɔɫ̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈdo.lus/, [ˈd̪ɔːlus]

Etymology 1

From Proto-Indo-European *dolh₁os. Cognates include Ancient Greek δόλος (dólos).

Noun

dolus m (genitive dolī); second declension

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

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

   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 1.130:

     Nec latuēre dolī frātrem Iūnōnis et īrae.

     Nor was [her] brother [Neptune] unaware of the deceit and wrath of Juno.

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

Usage notes

The phrase dolum faciō means "to trick."

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
• subdolus

Related terms

• dolōsē
• dolōsitās

Descendants

Descendants of dolus

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

Etymology 2

Probably a separate and unrelated term from the above, instead deriving from doleō (“to hurt, grieve”) and dolor (“pain”).

Noun

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

1. pain, grief

Related terms

• cordolium

Descendants

• Balkan Romance:
  • Aromanian: dor
  • Romanian: dor
• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: duolo
• Padanian:
  • Friulian: dûl
  • Piedmontese: deur, deul
  • Venetan: diol
• 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’s 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): /ˈdˠolusˠ/

Adjective

dolus

1. lightless, obscure

Descendants

• Irish: dolas

Mutation

Middle Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
dolus	dolus pronounced with /ð(ʲ)-/, later /ɣ(ʲ)-/	ndolus
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

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