Etymologically
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consequentia

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kõː.sɛˈkʷɛn.ti.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kon.seˈkʷɛn.t͡si.a][1]

Forms

cōnsequentia f (genitive cōnsequentiae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cōnsequēns (“following”) + -ia,[2][1] the present participle of cōnsequor (“to follow”).[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from the Rhetorica ad Herennium and Cicero on;[3] in Cicero's De divinatione it is the regular succession of events which observers noted over long periods.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From an orderly succession or progression it came to mean a logical consequence, the necessary sequence of one thing on another; the Rhetorica ad Herennium uses per consequentiam of a figure in which a thing is suggested by what follows from it.[2][4] The word is mostly post-classical and most frequent in the jurists,[4] where per consequentias means “as a result” and ad consequentias “to analogous cases”: Paulus says that what was accepted against the reason of the law is not to be extended by analogy.[2]

It went on in philosophy and theology, in Hrabanus Maurus and Albertus Magnus among others,[5] and reached English in the late 14th century, through Old French, as consequence.[6]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the succession of events.[2][3][5]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius speaks of the consequentia of nature.[4][5]
  • 1st half of the 3rd century AD – The jurist Paulus uses it for analogy.[2][5]
  • 13th century – Albertus Magnus uses it.[5]
  • late 14th century – Borrowed into English as consequence.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A succession or sequence of events.[2][3]
  2. A progression in order.[2]
  3. A logical consequence, necessary sequence;[2][4] per consequentias, as a result, consequently.[2][4]
  4. An analogy.[2][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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com