abscedo

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [apˈskeː.doː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [abˈʃɛː.do]^[1]

Forms

abscēdō (present infinitive abscēdere, perfect active abscessī, supine abscessum); third conjugation^[1] Also apscēdō, and Silius has the syncopated abscēssem.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from abs- “away” and cēdō “to go, withdraw”.^[2][1][4] De Vaan traces ⟨cēdō⟩ to Proto-Italic *kesd-e/o- (“to go away”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱyesdʰ- (“to drive away; go away”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citations are from Plautus, of going away.^[2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It meant to go away, as in Plautus' abscēde! “go away!”; of troops to withdraw, as in Livy; to vanish, as in Cicero; of coasts and buildings to recede, as in Vitruvius; to give up an enterprise, retire, as in Nepos; to be taken away; and of illness and feelings to pass off.^[2][7] In medicine, as in Celsus, it meant to separate off, slough, and to gather into an abscess.^[2]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant to retire, depart.^[8] Its noun abscessus, used medically by Celsus, gave English abscess in the 1610s, from the notion that humours go away from the body through the swelling.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[2][6]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of an abscess.^[2][6]
• 1610s – English abscess is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To go away; to withdraw, retire.^[2]
2. To vanish; to recede.^[2]
3. To give up, abandon.^[2]
4. (of illness) To pass off.^[2]
5. (medicine) To slough; to form an abscess.^[2]

Word family

• abscessiō
• abscessus

Related words

• cēdō
• English abscess

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson