accensio

Forms

accēnsiō f (genitive accēnsiōnis); third declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin accendō (“to kindle, light”) + -tiō, a noun of action made from the verb.^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use is in the Itala, the Old Latin Bible, which in Exodus speaks of the lamps for lighting, lucernās accēnsiōnis.^[1][2]

Semantic evolution

Christian writers used it of lighting lamps and fires: the Latin Irenaeus speaks of the lighting of torches,^[1] Jerome of the woman who found her drachma by lighting a lamp,^[1] and Paulinus of Nola of the Lord's altars, which take no fire but his.^[1]

It was also used figuratively of a kindling of feeling.^[1] Augustine writes of an early pleasure that sparks in boys but is barren,^[1] and Cassiodorus defines rage as a sudden kindling of the mind, repentīna mentis accēnsiō.^[1] In medieval Latin it could mean an illumination of the mind;^[3] Köbler records it in Hildegard of Bingen's Scivias.^[2] Ancient glossaries confuse it with accessiō.^[1]

Timeline

• after 220 AD – The Itala uses it of lamps in Exodus.^[1][2]
• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it of lighting a lamp.^[1][2]
• c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus calls rage a sudden kindling of the mind.^[1][2]
• 1141–1151 – Hildegard of Bingen uses it in the Scivias.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) A kindling, lighting (of lamps, torches, fire).^[1][2]
2. (Late Latin, figurative) A kindling or flaring up of feeling.^[1]
3. (Medieval Latin) An illumination of the mind.^[3]

Related words

• accēnsus²

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
3. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill