nexum

Learned borrowing from Latin nexum.

nexum

1. A contract in early Ancient Rome in which the debtor pledged his own person as collateral should he default on his loan (thus risking becoming a slave to the creditor).

• nexus

Nominalization of nexus.

nexum n (genitive nexī); second declension

1. (Ancient Rome, law) a bond secured upon the personal liberty of the debtor after having failed to cover for an earlier security, which made him a slave (nexus) of his master creditor
   • 54 BCE – 51 BCE, Cicero, De re publica 2.59:

     Fuerat fortasse aliqua ratio maioribus nostris in illo aere alieno medendi, quae neque Solonem Atheniensem non longis temporibus ante fugerat, neque post aliquanto nostrum senatum, cum sunt propter unius libidinem omnia nexa civium liberata nectierque postea desitum, […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Second-declension noun (neuter).

nexum

1. inflection of nexus:
   1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular
   2. accusative masculine singular

nexum

1. accusative singular of nexus (substantive)

nexum

1. accusative singular of nexus (action noun)

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