Etymologically
Log in

circumscriptio

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 10:32. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɪr.kũːˈskriːp.ti.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [t͡ʃir.kumˈskrip.t͡si.o][1]

Forms

circumscrīptiō f (genitive circumscrīptiōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin circumscrībō (“to draw a line around”) + -tiō.[2][3][1] circumscrībō is circum- (“around”) with scrībō (“to write”),[2] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *skreif-e/o- (“to carve”) and Proto-Indo-European *skreibh-e/o- (“to carve”).[4] Cognate with Oscan scriftas (“written”) and Umbrian screhto (“written”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and the TLL record it from Cicero.[5][3] In the eighth Philippic it is a circle drawn round a man, who was not to step out of it before he had given his answer.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

From the drawn circle it came to mean a boundary, outline or compass: Cicero imagines looking on the whole earth, its position, shape and extent, and speaks of an eternity that no limitation of time measured.[2][6] In rhetoric Cicero uses it for the period, the rounded sentence the Greeks called περίοδος,[2][6] and for a kind of periphrasis;[2] Quintilian has it for a short summary or definition.[2][6]

Like circumscrībō, which also meant to trick someone, it came to mean cheating or defrauding, especially by legal artifice in money matters:[6] Cicero accuses an opponent of putting up estates for sale by open fraud.[2][6] Seneca and Tertullian use it of deceit in general.[6] Arnobius uses it of the outline of a body.[6]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a drawn circle, of the compass of the earth, of a period in prose, and of fraud.[2][6][5]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian, of a short definition.[2][6][5]
  • 297–310 AD – Arnobius, of the outline of a body.[6][5]
  • 1530s – English borrows it as circumscription, the laying down of limits.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A circle drawn round something.[2][6]
  2. Circumference, boundary, limits; of time, limitation.[2][6][1]
  3. Outline, contour; a short definition or summary.[2][6][8]
  4. (rhetoric) A period, a rounded sentence; a periphrasis.[2][6]
  5. Cheating, defrauding, fraud.[2][6][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ a b 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 d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson