litigatio (Latin)

Where does "litigatio" come from?

The Latin noun 'litigatio' meaning 'dispute, quarrel' or 'lawsuit' was formed from the verb 'litigo' combined with the suffix '-tio'[1]. The underlying verb 'litigo' itself descends from 'lis' meaning 'a quarrel' combined with the suffix '-igo'[2]. Further back in Old Latin, 'lis' appeared as 'stlis' or 'slis', potentially tracing to Proto-Italic '*slītis' and ultimately to a Proto-Indo-European root related to accusing[3].

Open questions

• The Old Latin form stlis and Proto-Italic *slītis involve reconstructed or altered forms with an unusual reduction. [3]
• The connection to the Proto-Indo-European root *(s)leyH meaning to accuse is considered a possibility rather than a certainty. [3]

Full etymology tree

• litigatio (Latin), 'dispute, quarrel'
  • derived litigo (Latin), 'to dispute, quarrel'
    • derived lis (Latin), 'lawsuit, action'
      • inherited stlis (Latin), 'archaic form of līs'
        • inherited *slītis (Proto-Italic)
          • inherited *sliH-ti- (Proto-Indo-European)
            • derived *(s)leyH- (Proto-Indo-European)
    • suffix -igo (Latin), 'Enlargement of -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs).'
  • suffix -tio (Latin), '-tion, -ation, -ing; suffixed to verbs to form action nouns denoting a process, action, or result of an action.'

Ancestors

• litigo (Latin)
• -tio (Latin)

Descendants and derived words

• litigation (English)

Sources

1. litigatio (Latin) - Wiktionary
2. litigo (Latin) - Wiktionary
3. lis (Latin) - Wiktionary

Updated August 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris