circumscribo

Forms

circumscrībō (present infinitive circumscrībere, perfect active circumscrīpsī, supine circumscrīptum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin circum- (“around”) + scrībō (“to write, draw”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces scrībō to Proto-Italic *skreif-e/o- (“to carve”) and Proto-Indo-European *skreibʰ-e/o- (“to carve”).^[4] Cognate with Oscan scriftas (“written”) and Latvian skrīpât (“to scratch, scribble”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short note that it is very frequent in Cicero;^[5] in the Philippics he tells how Popilius drew a circle with a rod round King Antiochus as he stood.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to draw a line or circle round something, and so to confine within limits, as Cicero asks whether someone would put up with being shut in by the Rubicon, and to restrict the scope of a skill; nature, he writes, has bounded our life in a short course, but glory in an immense one.^[2] It is also to define or outline in words, to exclude from consideration, and to restrain the emotions, as Seneca's anger, or to abridge, as Columella's six-book epitome of Dionysius.^[2] Cicero uses it of restricting a magistrate's powers.^[2]

From hemming in it came to mean to impose on or cheat, as Cicero's men deceived by captious questions, to defraud of money, and in Frontinus to circumvent a law.^[2] Church Latin glosses it to circumscribe, outline boundaries.^[6] English circumscribe dates from the late 14th century.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of Popilius' circle and of cheating by captious questions.^[2][8]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of restraining anger.^[2][8]
• 1st century AD – Columella of abridging a work.^[2][8]
• late 14th century – Borrowed into English as circumscribe.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To draw a line or circle round; to draw in the form of a circle.^[2][5][1]
2. To confine within limits; to restrict; to mark the bounds of in time.^[2][5][1]
3. To define or outline; to exclude.^[2]
4. To restrain emotions; to abridge.^[2]
5. To restrict the powers of a magistrate.^[2]
6. To cheat, defraud; to circumvent a law.^[2][1]

Word family

• circumscrīptiō
• circumscriptor
• incircumscriptus
• praecircumscrībō
• circumscrīptē
• circumscrīptus

Related words

• scrībō
• English circumscribe

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de