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The corpus record — Latin

reus

reus

party in a lawsuit; defendant

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Densest 12 of 155 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. reus — de Vaan

reus 'party in a lawsuit; defendant' [m. o] (Lex XII+) Derivatives: rea [f ] 'female defendant'· Pit *ra-w- Of wealth' » 'of a case'? PIE *Hreh]-i-unt- 'possessing wealth'? WH supports the ancient connection with res 'case' and posits *re-i-o- 'connected with a court case', whereas EM term the semantic connection with res weak. I do not share their pessimism. For a suffix *-o- to have this derived meaning, the … — [de Vaan, s.v. reus, p. 535]

2. rĕus — Lewis & Short

rĕus, i, m., and rĕa, ae, f.res, jurid. t. t.

I Originally, a party to an action (res), either plaintiff or defendant; afterwards restricted to the party accused, defendant, prisoner, etc.: reos appello non eos modo, qui arguuntur, sed omnes, quorum de re disceptatur. Sic enim olim loquebantur, Cic. de Or. 2, 43, 183; cf.: reos appello, quorum res est, id. ib. 2, 79, 321: reus nunc dicitur, qui causam dicit: et item qui quid promisit spoponditve ac debet. At Gallus Aelius, lib. II. Significationum verborum quae ad jus pertinent, ait: reus est qui cum altero litem contestatam habet, sive is egit, sive cum eo actum est, Fest. p. 273 Müll. It is found in this original signif. in the Lex XII. Tab., Fragm. ap. Fest. l. l., which Ulpian periphrases: si judex vel alteruter ex litigatoribus morbo sontico impediatur, Dig. 2, 11, 2, § 3.—
II In the stricter sense.
A A party obliged or under obligation to do or pay any thing, one answerable or responsible for any thing, a bondsman, a debtor: reus dictus est a re, quam promisit ac debet. Reus stipulando est, qui stipulatur. Reus promittendo est, qui suo nomine alteri quid pro altero promisit, Fest. pp. 135 and 227; cf. Dig. 45, 2, 1; and: delegare est vice suā alium reum dare creditori vel cui jusserit, ib. 46, 2, 11: pecuniae reus fieri, ib. 16, 1, 17: dotis, ib. 23, 3, 22, § 2: locationis, ib. 19, 2, 13, § 9.—
2 Transf., in gen., one who is bound by any thing, who is answerable for any thing, a debtor (very rare): quo intentius custodiae serventur, opportuna loca dividenda praefectis esse, ut suae quisque partis tutandae reus sit, answerable or responsible for, Liv. 25, 30: voti reus, bound by my vow (sc. in having obtained my desire), Verg. A. 5, 237 (voti reus, debitor, Serv.: voti reus: Haec vox propria sacrorum est, ut reus vocetur, qui suscepto voto se numinibus obligat, damnatus autem, qui promissa vota non solvit, Macr. S. 3, 2). —
B One who is accused or arraigned, a defendant, prisoner, a criminal, culprit (the predominant signif. at all periods and in all styles; cf.: nocens, sons): quis erat petitor? Fannius. Quis reus? Flavius. Quis judex? Cluvius, Cic. Rosc. Com. 14, 42: inopia reorum ... aliquos ad columnam Maeniam reos reperire, id. Div. in Caecil. 16, 50: privato Milone et reo ad populum accusante P. Clodio, id. Mil. 15, 40: reus Milonis lege Plotiā fuit Clodius quoad vixit, id. ib. 13 fin.: facere aliquem reum, to accuse one, Nep. Alcib. 4, 3.— Persons under criminal charges usually put on mourning: rei ad populum Furius et Manlius circumeunt sordidati, Liv. 2, 54, 3 (cf. id. 2, 61; 3, 58; Cic. Verr. 2, 1, 58, § 152). — In fem.: ut socrus adulescentis rea ne fiat, Cic. Fam. 13, 54: tota rea citaretur Etruria, id. Mil. 19, 50: rea es, Sen. Contr. 4, 29. —
(b) With a statement of the crime or the punishment, one guilty of any crime, one condemned to any punishment: facti reus, Plaut. Cist. 1, 3, 16: aliquem rei capitalis reum facere, Cic. Verr. 2, 2, 38, § 94; cf. capitis, Quint. 12, 10, 70: avaritiae, Cic. Fl. 3, 7: lenocinii, Quint. 5, 10, 47: parricidii, id. 7, 2, 17: manifesti peculatūs, id. 12, 1, 43 et saep.: Sestius, qui est de vi reus, Cic. Sest. 35, 75; so, de vi, id. Vatin. 17, 41; Quint. 11, 1, 51: de ambitu, Cic. Q. Fr. 3, 3, 2: de moribus, Quint. 4, 2, 3: est enim reus uterque ob eandem causam et eodem crimine, Cic. Vatin. 17, 41: mortis reus, Vulg. Matt. 26, 66: cum equester ordo reus a consulibus citaretur, Cic. Sest. 15, 35. — For the expressions reum facere, agere, peragere, postulare, inter reos referre, etc., v. h. vv.—
2 Transf., in gen.: judex sim Reusque ad eam rem, Plaut. Trin. 2, 1, 12: reus fortunae, that was to be blamed for a misfortune, Liv. 6, 24; 9, 8: facinoris, Tac. A. 2, 66: reus agor, Ov. H. 20, 91.— In fem.: fortuna una accusatur, una agitur rea, Plin. 2, 7, 5, § 22: cum rea laudis agar, Ov. H. 14, 120.

Where it came from

  • de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. reus (scan pp. 535-536; entry #1484). Root candidates: *reiwo-, *rewo-, *reg-.
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. reus (scan p. 596; entry #9769).

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.