contractio

Forms

contractiō f (genitive contractiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin contrahō (“to draw together, shorten”) + -tiō.^[2][3][4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL and Köbler find it first in Cicero,^[4][5] who uses it of a frown, of the knitting of the brows and of the bending of the fingers.^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short note that it belongs to good prose and is commonest in Cicero.^[3] Its physical sense is a drawing together of parts of the body, set against stretching out: the bending of the fingers, the drawing in of the arm, a frown, the shrugging of the shoulders in Quintilian.^[3][6] In medicine it was a contraction of the sinews, a cramp, in Scribonius Largus, Pliny the Elder and Seneca.^[2][3][6]

Cicero also uses it of the mind, for a depression or dejection opposed to the expansion of joy, of a compression of speech, of shortening a page, and in prosody of the shortening of a syllable as opposed to lengthening.^[2][3][6] In Gaius' law textbook it is the bringing together of property.^[3] Medieval Latin used it for a contract and for marriage.^[7] English contraction was borrowed in the early 15th century, first for making a contract (especially of marriage) and also for shortening.^[8] It survives in Italian contrazione.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the body, of the mind and of syllables.^[2][3][5]
• c. 47 AD – Scribonius Largus uses it of a cramp.^[3][5]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of shrugging the shoulders.^[3][5]
• 140–180 AD – Gaius uses it of the bringing together of property.^[3][5]
• early 15th century – English borrows it as contraction.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A drawing together, contraction (of a part of the body); (medicine) a contraction of the sinews, a cramp.^[2][3][6]
2. (with animī) Depression, dejection.^[2][3]
3. A compression, shortening (of speech, of a page); (prosody) the shortening of a syllable.^[2][3]
4. (Medieval Latin) A contract; marriage.^[7]

Word family

• contractiuncula

Related words

• contrāctus
• contrāctūra
• contrahō

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com