circumstantia

Forms

circumstantia f (genitive circumstantiae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed on circumstāns (“standing around”), the present participle of circumstō (“to stand around, surround”), with the suffix -ia.^[2][3][1] It served to render Ancient Greek περίστασις (perístasis): Köbler and Etymonline call it a loan translation of the Greek word,^[4][5] and Quintilian says that he uses it because Latin has no other way to express that term.^[2][6] Seneca uses it for ἀντιπερίστασις (antiperístasis).^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest instance is in Cato's Origines, as Gellius quotes it: a tribune shows that destruction is close because of the bad ground and the enemy's surrounding position, hostium circumstantiā.^[3][2][4]

Semantic evolution

Seneca uses it for the way air or water closes round a body moving through it,^[2][6] and Tertullian for the surrounding throng of angels that never ceases to speak.^[3][6] Gellius uses it of the circumstances of things and affairs,^[2][6][3] and Quintilian makes it the rhetorical term for arguments drawn from the particular circumstances of a case.^[2][3] Later rhetoricians count seven circumstances;^[3] Fortunatianus lists person, thing, cause, time, place, manner and material.^[3]

In Christian writers it also meant distress or a strait: Tertullian speaks of a time of oppression, persecution or any other circumstantia.^[3][7] The Latin Psalms have ostium circumstantiae, a guarding door, set on the lips, and cīvitās circumstantiae, a fortified city;^[3] Augustine uses it often for the context of a passage.^[3]

In Medieval Latin it meant the context of a document and, above all, a circumstance;^[8][9] Alcuin lists the seven circumstances of a case,^[10] and confession texts speak of the circumstances that make a sin graver.^[10] English circumstance came from it through Old French about 1200, first of sins.^[5]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of the enemy's surrounding position.^[3][4]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it for the Greek antiperistasis.^[2][4]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian makes it a rhetorical term.^[2][4]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of the circumstances of affairs.^[2][3][4]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of distress.^[3][4]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate has ostium circumstantiae in the Psalms.^[3][4]
• 2nd half of the 8th century – Alcuin lists the seven circumstances of a case.^[10][4]
• c. 1200 – English circumstance is recorded, first of sins.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A standing round; a surrounding or encircling position.^[2][6][3]
2. The closing of air or water round a body moving through it.^[2][6]
3. A surrounding band or throng.^[6][7]
4. A particular situation, a circumstance; the circumstances of a case.^[2][6][3][9]
5. (rhetoric) Each of the attendant circumstances (person, deed, time, place, manner and so on) from which arguments are drawn.^[3][10]
6. (Late Latin) Distress, a strait, danger.^[3][7]
7. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A guard, a defence.^[3]
8. (Late Latin, Medieval Latin) The context of a passage or document.^[3][8]
9. (Medieval Latin) A circumstance that makes a sin graver; a detail, a particular.^[10]

Related words

• English circumstance

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 j k l m n o p q r s t Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ a b c d e 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