caesura

Forms

caesūra f (genitive caesūrae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin caedō (“to cut, fell”) + -ūra.^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pliny the Elder (c. 23–79 AD) uses it for the felling of a tree or of a wood.^[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Pliny also uses it for what has been cut, freshly cut reeds.^[3][4] The grammarians made it the metrical term for the pause within a verse, also called incisio: Diomedes and Priscian have it in this sense,^[4][3] and Bede lists its four kinds.^[6][3]

In medieval charters it meant the felling of timber, the right to fell it, and the part of a forest set aside for cutting;^[7][8] British writers also used it of a pause in music.^[6] English took caesura as a term of prosody in the 1550s.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 23–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for the felling of trees.^[3][4][5]
• 2nd half of the 4th century AD – Diomedes uses it for the pause in a verse.^[4][5]
• 639–709 – Aldhelm writes of the scansion of caesuras.^[6][5]
• 866 – A Lorsch charter grants the use of a wood for clearing or for felling timber.^[7][5]
• 1550s – English borrows it as caesura.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cutting down, felling.^[2][3]
2. (by metonymy) Something cut off.^[3][4]
3. (prosody) A caesura, a pause within a verse.^[3][4][8]
4. (Medieval Latin) The felling of timber or the right to fell it; a part of a forest set aside for cutting.^[7][8]
5. (Medieval Latin, music) A pause.^[6]

Word family

• caesuratim
• circumcaesūra

Related words

• caedēs
• caedō
• caeduus
• caesa
• caesim
• English caesura

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d 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
7. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com