abscessus

Forms

abscessus m (genitive abscessūs); fourth declension^[1][2] Also spelled abcessus.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin abscēdō (“to go away”) + -tus.^[1][5] That verb is a compound of abs- (“away”) and cēdō¹ (“to go, withdraw”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *kesd-e/o- (“to go away, avoid”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Cicero,^[3] who writes of regions frozen by the sun's great distance, longinquo solis abscessu.^[1][7]

Semantic evolution

Virgil uses it of the withdrawal of the Rutulians, Pliny the Elder of the sun's going away, and Tacitus of absence and retirement, a continuous absence being compared to exile.^[1][8] Celsus made it a medical term, a congestion or abscess.^[1][2][9]

In Augustine and the Theodosian Code it means death,^[7] the sense the Ecclesiastical and medieval dictionaries give.^[10][4] Bede writes of the years after a man's departure from Britain, and other medieval writers in Britain use it of a withdrawal and of the dispatch of business.^[11] Italian ascesso comes from it.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero writes of the sun's distance.^[1][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a withdrawal from battle.^[1][3]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of an abscess.^[1][3]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of absence and retirement.^[1][9][3]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of death.^[7][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A going away, departure, withdrawal.^[1][2]
2. Absence, retirement;^[1][9] of things, remoteness.^[1]
3. (medicine) A congestion, an abscess.^[1][2]
4. (Late Latin) Death.^[7][10][4]

Related words

• abscēdō
• cēdō¹

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
5. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
11. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press