sumptum

Sumptum is a Latin noun meaning expense, expenditure, or outlay. It belongs to a semantic field focused on costs incurred by individuals, households, or authorities. The term is connected to sumptus, a more common masculine noun for “expense,” and to the verb sumere, “to take up” or “to spend.” In classical and late Latin texts, sumptum appears as part of phrases describing the costs associated with building projects, military campaigns, or ceremonial occasions.

In legal and administrative Latin it can appear in contexts dealing with budgets, charges, and accounts. The concept also underpins later vocabulary; from the adjective sumptuosus, meaning costly or lavish, English inherits the word sumptuous, and from sumptuarius, the related term sumptuary, as well as the broader notion of regulations known as sumptuary laws. These laws were historically used to curb extravagance in dress, feasting, and other personal expenditure, especially in medieval and early modern Europe, and they framed social norms around consumption.

Linguistically, sumptum demonstrates how Latin nouns tied to spending and taking up a cost evolved into a broader family of terms related to wealth, cost, and moderation. The word continues to appear in philological discussions of Latin vocabulary and in studies of the development of related English terms.

See also: sumptus, sumptuosus, sumptuarius, sumptuary laws, sumptuous.