consummatio

Forms

cōnsummātiō f (genitive cōnsummātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cōnsummō (“to sum up, complete”) + -tiō, a noun of action.^[2][1][3] The verb is formed from com- and summa (“sum, total”), from summus (“highest”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is in Celsus, who says that it is not fruit itself but the accumulation of it all that does harm: nōn haec sed cōnsummātiō omnium nocet.^[2] The TLL finds it from Velleius Paterculus on.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In classical prose it is the adding together of things and its result, the total or sum, and also a summing up:^[2][5] Columella reckons up the days of work, Pliny the Elder the circuit of Europe, and Seneca the Elder calls a passage a summing up of a whole life and a sort of funeral eulogy.^[2][5] It also meant the achieving of something, its completion, and its highest point or perfection.^[2] The TLL notes that it is mostly found in Church writers and is absent from the poets.^[3]

In Church Latin it is the consummation or perfecting of something and the end of the world,^[6] and in medieval Latin also the end of life, death.^[7] English took consummation in the late 14th century for perfection, and about 1400 for completion.^[4]

Timeline

• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of the accumulation of foods.^[2][8]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it for a reckoning of days of work.^[5][8]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it for the achieving of great things.^[2][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for the total circuit of Europe.^[5][8]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as consummation.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The adding together of things, accumulation.^[2][5]
2. The result of adding, a total, sum; a summing up, summary.^[2][5]
3. The achieving or accomplishment of something.^[2]
4. The final result, conclusion, completion.^[2][7]
5. The highest achievement, perfection.^[2][7]
6. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The end of the world.^[6]
7. (Medieval Latin) The end; death.^[7]

Word family

• inconsummatio

Related words

• English consummation

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de