terminus

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtɜː.mɪ.nəs/ (UK); /ˈtɝ.mə.nəs/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin terminus (“boundary, limit, end”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from the Proto-Indo-European root *ter- “peg, post, boundary marker”.^[4] It is related to term, terminal and determine.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A goal, end or finishing point (before 1617);^[7][3][4][5] the OED also has a mathematical sense, a term (1571), now obsolete.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In ancient Rome, Terminus was the god of boundaries and landmarks, and the word was used in English for him (1600) and for a statue or bust of the kind that marked boundaries (1645).^[7][4][6] Learned phrases such as terminus a quo “starting point” go back to the 16th century.^[7][4] The meaning “either end of a railway line”, or the station or town there, dates from 1836,^[7][3][4] and was extended to bus and tram routes.^[7][6]

Timeline

• 1571 – in mathematics, a term (obsolete).^[7]
• 1600 – the Roman god of boundaries.^[7]
• before 1617 – a goal, end point.^[7][3][5]
• 1673 – a boundary, limit.^[7]
• 1836 – the end of a railway line.^[7][3][4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Either end of a railway, bus or other transport line, or the station or town there.
2. The final point; the end or goal.
3. A boundary, or a post or stone marking one.
4. An extreme point, as the end of a glacier.

Related words

• terminal
• terminate
• termination
• terminus a quo
• terminus ad quem
• term
• determine
• exterminate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press