Etymologically
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abscessus

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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]

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