Etymologically
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concessio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɔŋˈkɛs.si.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kon̠ʲˈt͡ʃɛs.si.o][1]

Forms

concessiō f (genitive concessiōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin concēdō (“to yield, grant”) + -tiō.[2][3][4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in the Rhetorica ad Herennium,[4][5] where it is a term of rhetoric: an admission of the deed joined with a plea for pardon.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it rare but found in good prose.[3] Cicero uses it of a yielding or giving way, of the grants of land a proposed agrarian law would make (concessiōnēs agrōrum), and in his rhetorical works of a plea that asks for pardon rather than denying the act;[2][3][6] Varro uses it of the leave given to a farm hand to graze some stock of his own on the estate.[2][3] Quintilian names by it the figure in which a speaker seems to accept something unfair, trusting in the strength of his case.[3][6] Tertullian uses it of a yielding of the law.[3]

In the Church it meant concession or permission,[7] and in feudal law the assent a lord gave to the sale of land held of him in fief.[8] English concession was borrowed in the mid-15th century, especially of yielding in argument, partly through Old French.[9] It survives in Italian concessione.[6]

Timeline

  • 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it of a plea for pardon.[2][4][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of yielding and of grants of land.[2][3][5]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of leave to graze stock.[2][5]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of a rhetorical figure.[3][6][5]
  • mid-15th century – English borrows it as concession.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A yielding, giving way.[2][3]
  2. A grant (of land, rewards); permission, leave.[2][3][7]
  3. (rhetoric) An admission of the deed with a plea for pardon; the concession of a point to an opponent.[2][3][6]
  4. (Medieval Latin) A feudal lord's assent to the alienation of land held of him.[8]

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 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com