Borrowed fromLatinexemplum(“example”).Doublet ofexample andsample.
exemplum (pluralexempla)
- Anexample.
- A story demonstrating a moral point; aparable.
1971,Keith Thomas,Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published2012, page90:In the Middle Ages preachers had enlivened their sermons withexempla – edifying tales of judgements upon sinners and mercies shown to the pious.
exemplum n
- (literary) a story demonstrating a moral point
Declension ofexemplum (hard neuter foreign)
- “exemplum”, inInternetová jazyková příručka (in Czech),2008–2025
Similar formation asexēmptus, perfect passive participle ofeximō(“take out, take away”)
exemplum n (genitiveexemplī);second declension
- asample,example
- (in particular) awarning example,deterrent
- Synonyms:documentum,monitus
- esse inexemplō ―to serve as awarning
- torture,exemplarypenalty,chastisement
- Synonyms:cruciātus,pūnītiō,mercēs,poena,supplicium,sanctio,vindicātiō,pretium,animadversus,malum
- deed,memorablecircumstance
- precedent,case,custom
- Synonyms:mos,solitum,usus
- depiction,paint
- confrontation,comparison
- a copy ortranscript
Second-declension noun (neuter).
- Borrowings
- “exemplum”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879)A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- exemplum inEnrico Olivetti, editor (2003-2025),Dizionario Latino, Olivetti Media Communication
- “exemplum”, inCharlton T. Lewis (1891)An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- "exemplum", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’sGlossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- exemplum inGaffiot, Félix (1934)Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894)Latin Phrase-Book[1], London:Macmillan and Co.
- a good,[1] brilliant example; a striking example:exemplum clarum, praeclarum
- a good, brilliant example; a striking example:exemplum luculentum
- a good, brilliant example; a striking example:exemplum illustre
- a weighty example, precedent:exemplum magnum, grande
- to quote an example:exemplum afferre
- to quote an example:exemplo uti
- to cite a person or a thing as an example:aliquem (aliquid) exempli causaponere, proferre, nominare, commemorare
- to quote precedents for a thing:aliquid exemplis probare, comprobare, confirmare
- to demonstrate by instances:aliquid exemplis ostendere
- to borrow instances from history:exempla petere, repetere a rerum gestarum memoria orhistoriarum (annalium, rerum gestarum) monumentis
- examples taken from Roman (Greek) history:exempla a rerum Romanarum (Graecarum) memoria petita
- to collect, accumulate instances:multa exempla in unum (locum) colligere
- to choose one from a large number of instances:ex infinita exemplorum copia unum (pauca) sumere, decerpere (eligere)
- to quote Socrates as a model of virtue:a Socrate exemplum virtutis petere, repetere
- standard and pattern:auctoritas et exemplum (Balb. 13. 31)
- to set up some one as one's ideal, model:sibi exemplum alicuius proponere ad imitandum or simplysibi aliquem ad imitandum proponere
- to take a lesson from some one's example:sibi exemplum sumere ex aliquo orexemplum capere de aliquo
- to shape one's conduct after another's model:ad exemplum alicuius se conformare
- to set an example:exemplum edere, prodere
- to set an example:exemplo esse
- to inflict an exemplary punishment on some one:exemplum in aliquo orin aliquem statuere
- to inflict an exemplary punishment on some one:exemplum (severitatis) edere in aliquo (Q. Fr. 1. 2. 2. 5)
- the text of the author (nottextus):verba, oratio, exemplum scriptoris
- a letter, the tenor of which is..:litterae hoc exemplo (Att. 9. 6. 3)
