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
- (Late Latin) A kindling, lighting (of lamps, torches, fire).[1][2]
- (Late Latin, figurative) A kindling or flaring up of feeling.[1]
- (Medieval Latin) An illumination of the mind.[3]
Related words
References
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill