Etymologically
Log in

concursatio

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 12:58. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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]

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