The etymology and early history of ‘addiction’

Abstract

Contemporary usage of addiction is contradictory and confusing; the term is highly stigmatizing but popularly used to describe almost any strong desire, passion or pursuit. Does current usage involve a recent corruption of the term or is there a history of conflicting meanings? Method: A diachronic etymological study of the terms ‘addict,’ ‘addicted’ and ‘addiction,’ informed by contemporary linguistic theory and utilizing primary and secondary sources in Archaic and Classical Latin and in English. We examine three periods: Early Roman Republic, Middle and Late Roman Republic, and Early Modern England. Findings: ‘To speak to,’ its earliest meaning, is explained by legal and augural technical usage (5th cent. BCE). As addicere and addictus evolved in the Middle and Late Roman Republic, the notion of enslavement, a secondary derivation from its legal usage, persisted as descriptive and no longer literal. In the Early Modern period, the verb addict meant simply ‘to attach.’ The object of that attachment could be good or bad, imposed or freely chosen. By the 17th century, addiction was mostly positive in the sense of devoting oneself to another person, cause or pursuit. We found no evidence for an early medical model. Conclusion: Gambling appears to be the only behavior that could satisfy both original uses; it had a strongly positive meaning (its association with divination), and an equally negative, stigmatizing one. Historically, addiction is an auto-antonym, a word with opposite, conflicting meanings. Recent applications are not a corruption of the word but are rooted in earliest usage.

Keywords:

• Meaning of addiction
• enslavement
• gambling
• DSM-5
• stigma
• behavioral addiction

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Notes

1 As muddled as this may appear, it is perhaps technically correct. The requirement of only two of eleven criteria for a substance use disorder (SUD) means that one can have a disorder of moderate severity despite the absence of tolerance, withdrawal, or loss of control. In other words, other than distress and harmful consequences, the characteristics of an addiction weren’t thought to be necessary. This was deliberate, in that the editors’ intent was to increase the likelihood of early diagnosis. By thereby casting as wide a net as possible, they opted for a public health rather than an addictions model. A source of confusion is that SUDs, by their presence in DSM-5, are assumed to be addictions, and the terms are used as if they’re synonymous.

2 These utilize the same interviews, same quotes, same incorrect information. For example, at least a dozen blogs and magazine articles on travel addiction refer to its inclusion in DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association 2000) as an impulse control disorder. This is untrue: it has never been mentioned in the DSM or considered a legitimate disorder.

3 The verb addicere was also used more generally in Roman law, both with regard to criminals who were being handed over for punishment by an official, and for the public auction or sale of confiscated property. Cic. Pro Quintico 30.92; cf. Ammianus Marcellinus The Later Roman Empire 14.5; Lewis & Short An Elementary Latin Dictionary, p. 17.

4 There is some debate as to the original Latin meaning of augury (augurium), but it is clear that the term evolved into a general term that embraced Roman divination, including the taking of auspices (Oxford Latin Dictionary, p. 234).

5 It was considered favorable if the birds flew in from the left side of the auspicant’s field of vision (templum), and alighted in auspicious high branches. Conversely, if the birds flew in from the wrong direction, or low, or landed in an inauspicious location, it would have indicated the god’s disapproval (Linderski 2006, p. 99–101).

6 Robinson (1946, p. 209) cites several ancient sources mentioning the ‘Venus Throw’ (Venerium), including Cicero’s De Divinatione 1.23, and Suetonius’ Divus Augustus 71. See also Plautus’ Asinaria (Act V, Sc.2). The Venus throw indicated the deity’s guarantee of good fortune and happiness to come. The underlying belief seems to have been that the deity sent auspicious signs by guiding the hand of the thrower in a particular way (Graf 2005, p. 63, 66).

7 The expansion of the legal definition of addicere in the sixteenth century English dictionaries (e.g., sell, appoint, etc.) was in fact drawn from ancient legal sources, as the harsh debtor seizure remedy of the Twelve Tables was subsequently abrogated by statute, though addicere continued to be used both with reference to the seizure of debtors’ property, as well to the handing over of convicted criminals for punishment (See n. 3 above).

8 The sin of drunkenness, according to Mather, exists in its excessiveness, and for that reason is paired with gluttony. He observes, as did many others, that habitual drunkenness causes various physical illnesses, as well as mental (emotional, intellectual) and moral problems, but at no point does he suggest that it’s a disease. Furthermore, he makes no attempt to relate addiction to the choice or consequences of the drinking. His use of the word is strictly in the sense of attachment.

9 For the linguistic phenomenon of ‘back-formation,’ generally, see English Language and Linguistics Online (or ‘ELLO’) available at http://www.ello.uos.de/field.php/Morphology/Backformation