cyclicus

Forms

cyclicus (feminine cyclica, neuter cyclicum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κυκλικός (kuklikós, “circular; cyclic”),^[2][1][3] an adjective of κύκλος (kúklos, “circle, ring, wheel”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Horace (65–8 BC) uses it in the Ars Poetica of the “cyclic writer”, a poet of the Epic Cycle; the OLD notes that it may there mean rather “conventional, commonplace”.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

The ancient commentator Porphyrio explained Horace's word: the poets who wrote on from the end of Homer's Iliad were called cyclic.^[5] Isidore of Seville speaks of cyclica carmina.^[4][5] In later Latin the word kept its Greek sense “circular”: Marius Victorinus used it of circular motion, Martianus Capella of the encyclopaedic round of the liberal arts, and Boethius of “circular” numbers, which return to their own beginning.^[5][6] Medical writers such as Theodorus Priscianus used it of periodic or regular cures.^[5][6]

In Medieval Latin it meant “round” (Sedulius Scottus' girdle), “regularly recurring”, and “encyclopaedic”, of the seven liberal arts.^[7][8] English cyclic (1794) came from it through French cyclique.^[9]

Timeline

• 65–8 BC – Horace speaks of the “cyclic writer”.^[2][4][3]
• 2nd half of the 2nd century AD – Porphyrio explains the term in his commentary on Horace.^[5][3]
• 1st half of the 4th century AD – Marius Victorinus uses it of circular motion.^[5][3]
• 5th century AD – Martianus Capella uses it of the encyclopaedic disciplines.^[5][6][3]
• 2nd third of the 9th century – Sedulius Scottus uses it of a round girdle.^[7][3]
• 1794 – Borrowed into English, through French, as cyclic.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the Epic Cycle, cyclic (of poets and poems); perhaps also conventional, commonplace.^[2][4]
2. Circular, round.^[5][7]
3. Encyclopaedic, embracing the liberal arts.^[5][6][8]
4. (arithmetic) Of numbers: circular, returning to their own beginning.^[5]
5. (medicine) Periodic, following a regular course.^[5][6]
6. (Medieval Latin) Regularly recurring.^[7]

Related words

• cyclus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b c d 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com