concursatio

Forms

concursātiō f (genitive concursātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin concursō (“to run to and fro”) + -tiō.^[2][3][1] concursō is a frequentative of concurrō (“to run together”), from currō (“to run”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *korse/o- and Proto-Indo-European *krs-e/o- (“to run”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[5] who in a speech on the agrarian law describes the crowd running together to ask what the praetor had decreed: quae concursatio percontantium quid praetor edixisset!^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the action of running together, a crowding or disorderly meeting of people,^[2][6] and the action of running or travelling to and fro, as in Cicero's mocking picture of the profitable journeys of the ten commissioners.^[2] In military use it is a skirmish of light troops: Livy contrasts the mobility and speed of one side with the weight of the other.^[2] Cicero also uses it figuratively for a coincidence, asking what order there could be in the chance concurrence of dreams.^[6] Wiktionary adds a figurative sense of restlessness or anxiety.^[1]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a crowd running together and of journeys to and fro.^[2][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of skirmishing.^[2][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of a disorderly crowding together.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A running together, a crowding, a disorderly meeting.^[2][6][1]
2. A running or travelling to and fro.^[2][1]
3. (military) A skirmish.^[2][1]
4. A coincidence, a chance concurrence.^[6]
5. (figurative) Restlessness, anxiety.^[1]

Related words

• concursō
• concurrō
• concursus

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 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. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press