circumcisio

Forms

circumcīsiō f (genitive circumcīsiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin circumcīdō + -siō, a noun of action from the verb “to cut around”.^[1][2][3] The verb is a compound of circum “around” and caedō (“to cut”).^[4] It renders Ancient Greek περιτομή (peritomḗ) in the Bible.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

According to the TLL it is read from the Old Latin Bible (the Itala) on and is frequent in Church writers;^[3] Tertullian (c. 160–220 AD) already argues about keeping or abolishing circumcisio, the cutting of the foreskin.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Besides the religious rite, it named any surgical cutting around, as in medical writers who speak of the circumcisio of the eyelids.^[3] Christian authors used it both of the body and figuratively, of the heart and the spirit,^[2]. In Medieval Latin it also named the feast of the Circumcision.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it for the rite and its spiritual meaning.^[3][2][5]
• after 220 AD – The Old Latin Bible uses it to render Greek peritomḗ.^[3][5]
• c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius discusses circumcision of the flesh and of the heart.^[2][5]
• 567 AD – The Council of Tours writes it with -ss-.^[3]
• late 12th century – English borrows it as circumcision.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) A cutting around, an amputation.^[3]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Circumcision of the foreskin.^[2][7][3]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Spiritual circumcision, of the heart or spirit.^[2]
4. (Medieval Latin) The feast of the Circumcision.^[6]

Related words

• circumcīdō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson