There is no universal agreement about the etymology and meaning of obiter. According to an interpretation to which many scholars give pride of place, obiter is a derivative from ob (like praeter from prae). The parallelism in formation is, however, deceptive, and the uses of the adverb are best accounted for by assuming that obiter rests on the univerbation of ob and iter “way”. It is argued that the South-Picene language has a hypostatic compound oftorim meaning “situated on the way”, which is structurally related to obiter.Martzloff Vincent. Sens et registre de l’adverbe latin obiter à la lumière d’un correspondant sabellique. In: Latin vulgaire – latin tardif IX. Actes du IXe colloque international sur le latin vulgaire et tardif, Lyon 2-6 septembre 2009. Lyon : Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée Jean Pouilloux, 2012. pp. 609-618. (Collection de la Maison de l'Orient méditerranéen ancien. Série philologique, 49
