plagium

From Latin plagium (“kidnapping”), compare plagiarism, probably from plaga (“a net, snare, trap”).

plagium (usually uncountable, plural plagiums)

1. (Scots law) abduction, especially of a child

The Scottish common law offence of Abduction is defined as: “the carrying off or confining of a person forcibly and without lawful authority”.

In addition, a common law offence of child stealing (‘plagium’) can be committed against children below the age of puberty (under 12 years for girls and under 14 years for boys) when the abductor has no parental responsibility for the child.

• OED 2nd edition 1989

Probably from or related to plaga (“hunting net”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- (“to weave”). See also plectō (“I weave”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈpla.ɡi.um/, [ˈpɫ̪äɡiʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpla.d͡ʒi.um/, [ˈpläːd͡ʒium]

plagium n (genitive plagiī or plagī); second declension

1. manstealing, kidnapping, the selling of freemen as slaves
   • 3rd century CE, Iulius Paulus, Digesta Iustiniani 40.12:

     lēge Fabiā prohibētur servus, quī plagium admīsit, prō quō dominus poenam intulit, intrā decem annōs manūmittī.

Second-declension noun (neuter).

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

• plagiārius
• plagiātīcius
• plagiātor
• plagiō

• plagium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “plagium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “plagium”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
• “plagium”, in Richard Stillwell et al., editor (1976), The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press