apsis

Forms

apsis f (genitive apsīdis); third declension^[1] It is also spelled absis and hapsis.^[2][3] Late Latin has a first-declension absida.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἁψίς (hapsís, “arch, vault”),^[2][1][6] which is from ἅπτω (háptō, “to fasten, touch”).^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pliny the Elder (23/24–79 AD) uses it in astronomy for the arc that a planet appears to describe: each planet's apsides rise from a different centre.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Besides the astronomical arc it meant a segment of a circle, as in Pliny the Younger's room curved into an apsis,^[2][3] and, in the Digest, a kind of vessel decorated with inlaid work.^[2] Late Latin often has a first-declension form absida.^[4]

In Medieval Latin it meant a vault, an apse or vaulted choir, the cupola of a tomb, a reliquary and the tyre of a wheel,^[5] and in British sources also an arc and the edge of a well.^[8]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the arcs described by the planets.^[2][7]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian, in the Digest, uses it of a kind of vessel.^[2][7]
• 538/539–594 AD – Gregory of Tours uses it.^[7]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville uses it.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (astronomy) The arc apparently described by a planet.^[2][3]
2. A segment of a circle; an arch.^[2][3][1]
3. A kind of vessel.^[2]
4. (Medieval Latin) A vault; an apse, a vaulted choir.^[5][8]
5. (Medieval Latin) A reliquary; the cupola of a tomb.^[5]
6. (Medieval Latin) The tyre of a wheel.^[5]

Word family

• absīdātus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
7. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b 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