Is it true that the word "immunity" comes from the Roman word for slaves?

It is widely believed that in Ancient Rome, slaves who survived an epidemic were called immunes - this is supposedly how the now widespread term arose. We checked whether this opinion is justified.

During 2021, several public pages on VKontakte published posts with almost the same text: “In Ancient Rome, slaves who survived an epidemic were called immunes. They were sent to clean up the corpses, and if he survived after that, he was released and received immunitas. This is how the word “immunity” arose.” Similar messages can be found, for example, in the “5 interesting facts” group (4.4 million subscribers), and identical publications appeared there at least twice: in February and in December. Similar posts received hundreds and thousands of likes and less popular publics. Publications of similar content on other social networks, for example, attracted no less attention. Facebook And Twitter.

Let's start with where the word “immunity” comes from. In the "Big Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language" edited by Kuznetsov it says, that this term goes back to the Latin immunitas or immunitatis - “liberation from something.” Similar versions set out in etymological dictionaries edited by Semenov and Shansky, as well as in “Great Russian Encyclopedia" And "Biological encyclopedic dictionary" The word “immunity” came into the Russian language from European (more likely total, via German), where rises besides the Latin immunitas.

A similar point of view is presented in the Oxford Classical Dictionary. Graham Burton in an article about the word immunitas writes: “Immunitas is the release of a community or individual from obligations to the Roman state or an individual from obligations to the local community.” In Rome, even entire cities could receive “immunity” (that is, exemption from taxes); such a right was given both on a permanent basis and on a temporary basis (for example, after a natural disaster).

There really were immunities in Ancient Rome, but, contrary to the authors of publications on social networks, they had nothing to do with slaves and epidemics. In this word called soldiers who were relieved of many routine duties because they were highly skilled in another trade. Among them could be blacksmiths, masons, carpenters, glaziers, gunsmiths, butchers, grooms and representatives of other professions.

We were unable to find any serious source that would confirm the version about the origin of the word “immunity” set out on social networks. Dictionaries and specialized resources do not connect its etymology with ancient Roman slaves, much less epidemics. The term “immune” did exist at that time, but had a completely different meaning. Apparently, the version set out in the verified messages is completely fictitious and has no relation to reality. Our fellow fact checkers from Ukraine And Kazakhstan.

Cover photo: engraving by J. Levasseur “The Angel of Death at the Door during the Plague in Rome”

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. "Vox Ukraine". Fake: The word “immunity” comes from the name of the slaves who removed corpses during epidemics
2. Stopfake.kz. Fake: “The word “immunity” comes from the name of ancient Roman slaves who removed corpses”
3. Is it true that Russian swearing appeared after the Tatar-Mongol invasion?
4. Is it true that the saying “the first pancake is lumpy” is associated with bears?