cessio

Forms

cessiō f (genitive cessiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cēdō¹ (“to yield, give up”) + -tiō, a noun of action formed on the stem of its participle ⟨cessus⟩.^[2][1][3] The verb goes back to Proto-Italic *kesd-e/o- (“to go away, avoid”) and Proto-Indo-European *ḱiesdʰ- (“to drive away, (intransitive) go away”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is a legal word.^[5] Cicero, in the Topica, names in iure cessio, a surrender before the magistrate, as one way of transferring property.^[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

Gaius and the Digest use it in the same legal sense,^[5][3] and the Digest has cessio bonorum, the surrender of goods to creditors, as the title of a section.^[5] Ulpian used cessio diei for the running of a term.^[2][5] Isidore of Seville defines it as the concession of a thing.^[3]

In Medieval Latin it meant a cession, a donation, and the deed that recorded a donation.^[6] Köbler records it in charters and in the Germanic law codes.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero names in iure cessio as a form of transfer.^[2][7]
• 140–180 AD – Gaius describes how the in iure cessio is made.^[3][7]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian uses cessio diei for the running of a term.^[2][7]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville defines it as the concession of a thing.^[3][7]
• Middle Ages – It means a donation and the deed recording it.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law) A surrendering or giving up, a cession: in iūre cessiō, a transfer of property before a magistrate.^[2][5]
2. (law) cessiō diēī: the running of a term.^[2][5]
3. (Medieval Latin) A donation; the deed recording a donation.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de