constrictus

Forms

cōnstrictus (feminine cōnstricta, neuter cōnstrictum, comparative cōnstrictior); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from Latin cōnstringō (“to bind together, tie tightly”).^[1][2] The simple verb stringō goes back to Proto-Indo-European *strengh-e/o- (“to draw, tie”) in this sense of tying, which all the compounds in -stringō share.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective it is first cited from Pliny the Elder (1st century AD), meaning narrow or contracted: he describes one leaf as thinner, narrower and more contracted than another.^[1][4]

Semantic evolution

Besides its senses as a participle, “bound together, tied up, held in”,^[5][6] Pliny uses it in medicine of fevers marked by constriction, which, he says, are called stegnae.^[1]

The Vulgar Latin form *cōnstrinctus lies behind Old French constreinte and English constraint, while English constrict (1732) is a back-formation from constriction or else taken from constrictus.^[2]

Timeline

• 23–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of narrow leaves and of constricted fevers.^[1][4]
• 1732 – English constrict, perhaps directly from the Latin participle.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Narrow, small, restricted in size.^[1]
2. (medicine) Marked by contraction or constriction.^[1]
3. (as participle) Bound together, tied up; inhibited.^[5][6]

Related words

• English constrict
• English constraint

Usage notes

Niermeyer records a separate medieval noun constrictus of the fourth declension, meaning jurisdiction.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill