aberratio

Forms

aberrātiō f (genitive aberrātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin aberrō (“to wander away”) + -tiō, an action noun.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has it in two letters, both times of a relief or distraction from trouble: writing distracts him from grief, and he has no other diversion from his vexations.^[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

L&S thinks it is perhaps found only in these two passages of Cicero.^[3] Stelten's dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin gives the same sense, relief from anything irksome.^[6] Köbler records a second use in Albertus Magnus in the 13th century.^[5]

English aberration (1590s) comes from it and first meant “a wandering, a straying”.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero writes of an aberratio a dolore and a molestiis.^[3][4][5]
• 13th century – Albertus Magnus uses it.^[5]
• 1590s – English borrows it as aberration.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Diversion, relief (from grief or trouble).^[2][3][6]

Related words

• aberro
• English aberration

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com