dictum

From Latin dictum (“proverb, maxim”), from dictus (“having been said”), perfect passive participle of dico (“I say”). Compare Spanish dicho (“saying”). Doublet of dict.

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪk.təm/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪktəm

dictum (plural dicta or dictums)

1. An authoritative statement; a dogmatic saying; a maxim, an apothegm.
   • 1949, Bruce Kiskaddon, George R. Stewart, Earth Abides:

     […] a dictum which he had heard an economics professor once propound […]

   • 1951 July, “British Standard Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 438:

     1. The utmost in steam producing capacity permitted by weight and dimensions; in other words, capacity to boil water—H. A. Ivatt's old dictum.

   • 1992, Arthur Coleman Danto, Beyond the Brillo Box, University of California Press, →ISBN, page 5:

     But this is not the philosophical revolution of which I speak. What Warhol's dictum amounted to was that you cannot tell when something is a work of art just by looking at it, for there is no particular way that art has to look.

2. A judicial opinion expressed by judges on points that do not necessarily arise in the case, and are not involved in it.
3. The report of a judgment made by one of the judges who has given it.
4. An arbitrament or award.

• quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur

• ipse dixit

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈdik.tum/, [ˈd̪ɪkt̪ʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈdik.tum/, [ˈd̪ikt̪um]

Neuter form of dictus (“said, spoken”), past passive participle of dīcō (“to say, to speak”).

dictum n (genitive dictī); second declension

1. a word, saying, something said
2. proverb, maxim, saw
3. bon mot, witticism

   Synonym: dictērium

4. verse, poetry
5. a prophecy, prediction
6. order, command
7. promise, assurance

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• “dictum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “dictum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• dictum 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)
• dictum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) a short, pointed witticism: breviter et commode dictum
    
  • (ambiguous) a witticism, bon mot: facete dictum
    
  • (ambiguous) a far-fetched joke: arcessitum dictum (De Or. 2. 63. 256)
    
  • (ambiguous) to make jokes on a person: dicta dicere in aliquem
    
  • (ambiguous) to obey a person's orders: dicto audientem esse alicui
    
  • (ambiguous) as I said above: ut supra (opp. infra) diximus, dictum est
    
  • (ambiguous) so much for this subject...; enough has been said on..: ac (sed) de ... satis dixi, dictum est
    

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

dictum

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

dictum

1. accusative supine of dīcō

dictum n (definite singular dictumet, indefinite plural dicta or dictum, definite plural dicta or dictaa or dictai or dictuma or dictumi)

1. (pre-2012) alternative form of diktum

Unadapted borrowing from Latin dictum.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdik.tum/
• Rhymes: -iktum
• Syllabification: dic‧tum

dictum n

1. (literary) dictum (authoritative statement)

• dictum in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• dictum in Polish dictionaries at PWN

dictum m (plural dictums)

1. dictum

• “dictum”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014