tribuere

Tribuere is a Latin verb meaning to grant, bestow, assign, or allocate. It is used in classical Latin as a transitive verb and occurs with the thing given in the accusative and often with the recipient expressed in the dative. Common contexts include conferring honors, allocating resources, or assigning duties or offices.

The verb appears in its four principal parts as tribuo, tribuere, tribui, tributum, and it is conjugated as a third-conjugation verb. The perfect passive participle tributus gives rise to related forms and the noun tributum, meaning tribute or tax. In Latin prose and poetry, tribuere frequently appears in political, military, and legal expressions, for example to describe a senate or magistrate granting honors or distributing money or privileges.

Grammatical notes: tribuere takes a direct object in the accusative for what is given, while the recipient is often in the dative. The range of translation includes “to grant,” “to bestow,” “to allocate,” and “to assign.” It can appear in various tenses and voices, adapting to standard Latin verb systems.

Derivationally, the noun tributum (tribute, tax) and the adjective tributus (given, yielded) derive from the same root. The term also has relevance for philology and historical studies when discussing Roman institutions, patronage, and public rewards.

In English-language scholarship, tribuere is encountered mainly in translations of Latin texts or discussions of Latin syntax and vocabulary. Related forms and phrases help illuminate how Romans described the distribution of honors, duties, or resources in political and legal life.