contingentia

Forms

contingentia f (genitive contingentiae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin contingēns + -ia,^[2] from the present participle of contingō (“to touch; to happen”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Boethius, in his commentary on Aristotle's On Interpretation, uses it as a term of logic and treats it as meaning the same as possibility.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

It began as a term of logic, “possibility”.^[4][5] Scholastic philosophy made it the contingency of things, their not being necessary, the opposite of necessitas in Thomas Aquinas,^[6] and more widely the possibility of being otherwise.^[7]

Medieval writers also used it in the senses of the verb: touch or contact, connection, attaining and meeting.^[7] In geometry it named the contingence of a line touching a curve,^[8] and Niermeyer records the sense “circumstance”.^[9] Italian contingenza continues it.^[5]

Timeline

• first quarter of the 6th century AD – Boethius uses it in logic for possibility.^[2][4][3]
• 13th century – Albertus Magnus uses it for touching, attaining.^[7][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (logic) Possibility.^[4][5][2]
2. (Medieval Latin, philosophy) Contingency, the fact of not being necessary.^[6][7]
3. (Medieval Latin) Touch, contact.^[7]
4. (Medieval Latin) Connection; attaining; meeting.^[7]
5. (Medieval Latin, geometry) Contingence, as in the angle of contingence.^[8]
6. (Medieval Latin) A circumstance.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Schütz, Ludwig (1895), Thomas-Lexikon, 2nd ed., Paderborn: F. Schöningh
7. ^ a b c d e f Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill