Etymologically
Log in

acceleratio

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 25 October 2026 at 00:43. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ak.kɛ.ɫɛˈraː.ti.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [at.t͡ʃe.leˈrat.t͡si.o][1]

Forms

accelerātiō f (genitive accelerātiōnis); third declension[1] Also spelt adcelerātiō.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin accelerō (“to hasten”) + -tiō.[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Rhetorica ad Herennium, which describes a continuous style of delivery as a loud hastening of the speech (orationis enuntiandae acceleratio clamosa).[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The word is rare in Classical Latin.[2][4] Hilary of Poitiers uses it of the hastening of the kingdom of heaven, which the Gospels teach believers to pray for, and Pseudo-Ambrose uses it to translate a biblical place name.[4] Ecclesiastical and medieval Latin kept the sense “hastening”,[5][6] and modern Latin also uses it for acceleration in physics.[1] English acceleration was borrowed from it in the 1530s.[7]

Timeline

  • 3rd quarter of the 1st century BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it of hurried delivery.[4][3][6]
  • c. 315–367/368 AD – Hilary of Poitiers uses it of the coming of the kingdom of heaven.[4][6]
  • 1530s – English borrows it as acceleration.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A hastening, speeding up; acceleration.[2][3][5]
  2. (physics) Acceleration.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d 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 c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com