consessus

Forms

cōnsessus m (genitive cōnsessūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cōnsīdō (“to sit down together”) + -tus, a noun of action.^[2][3] The verb is con- and sīdō (“to sit down”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *sizd-e/o- and the reduplicated present Proto-Indo-European *si-sd-e/o- (“to sit down”).^[4] Cognate with Umbrian sistu (“let him sit down”), Sanskrit सीदति (sī́dati, “sits down”) and Ancient Greek ἵζω (hízō, “to sit down”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example in the OLD is in Afranius, who speaks of “our meeting or gathering”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it is a gathering or assembly of people sitting together, especially a court of jurors, as in Cicero's speeches, and the audience in a theatre or at games.^[2][6] An inscription uses it for the right to a seat.^[2] The abstract sense, a sitting together or the permission to sit beside someone, is only post-classical, in the Historia Augusta and the Theodosian Code.^[6] Church Latin glosses it “assembly, a sitting together”,^[7] and in British medieval Latin consessus Regius was the court of King's Bench.^[8]

Timeline

• 2nd half of the 2nd century BC – Afranius of a gathering.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of courts and theatre audiences.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A gathering, assembly, meeting; a court of jurors; an audience.^[2][6][1]
2. The right to a seat.^[2][6]
3. (Late Latin) A sitting together.^[6][1][7]
4. (Medieval Latin) consessus Regius: the court of King's Bench.^[8]

Related words

• cōnsīdō
• sedeō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ a b 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 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
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b 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