rubricatus

Either formed directly from the noun rūbrīca (“red ochre”) +‎ -ātus (“-ed”, adjective-forming suffix), or formed as the perfect passive participle of a verb rū̆brī̆cō (“to paint red”). The length of the vowels in the first two syllables of the verb are uncertain as it has two potential derivations: from the noun rūbrīca +‎ -ō, implying the pronunciation rūbrīcō, or from the adjective ruber (“red”) +‎ -icō, implying the pronunciation rubricō; its formation may perhaps have been reanalyzed over time. The association with the legal field is presumably based on a practice of writing the headings of laws in red.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ruː.briːˈkaː.tʊs], [rʊ.brɪˈkaː.tʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ru.briˈkaː.t̪us]

rū̆brī̆cātus (feminine rū̆brī̆cāta, neuter rū̆brī̆cātum); first/second-declension adjective

1. (painted) red
   • c. 1st century CE, Carmina Priapea, (uncertain meter):

     Tutelam pomari, diligens Priape, facito:
     rubricato furibus minare mutinio.

     Careful Priapus, keep watch of the orchard:
     threaten thieves with red(-painted) penis.

2. (by extension) legal, law-related
   • c. 27 CE – 66 CE, Petronius, Satyrica 46.7:

     Emi ergo nunc puero aliquot libra rubricata, quia volo illum ad domusionem aliquid de iure gustare.

     • 2020 translation by Gareth Schmeling

       I've now bought some law books for the boy, because I want him to get a taste of the law so that he can manage our household business.

First/second-declension adjective.

• Rū̆brī̆cātus

• rū̆brī̆cō

• “rubricatus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• rubricatus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “rubricatus”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly