decessus

Forms

dēcessus m (genitive dēcessūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dēcēdō (“to go away, withdraw”) + -tus, a noun of action.^[2][3] The verb is formed from dē- and cēdō¹ (“to go, yield”).^[1] De Vaan traces the simple verb to Proto-Italic *kesd-e/o- (“to go away, avoid”) and, following Lubotsky, connects it with Sanskrit सेधति (sedhati, “to drive, chase away”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱiesdh- (“to drive away; go away”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Varro and Cicero on.^[3] Varro speaks of the departure of the Gauls from the city, dēcessus Gallōrum ex urbe.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a going away, departure, the opposite of accessus,^[5] and especially the retirement of a Roman magistrate from his province at the end of his term: Cicero asks whether Crete could be freed after the departure of Marcus Brutus.^[2][5] Lewis and Short note that Cicero more often uses dēcessiō in this sense.^[5] As a gentler word for mors it meant death: Cicero writes that most people are distressed by the death of their friends.^[2][6]

It was also used of a lessening or withdrawal: Caesar has the ebb of the tide, Pliny the Elder the fall of the Nile, and Celsus the abatement of a fever.^[2][5] Christian writers such as Hilary and Augustine use it in the plural, and Hilary pairs the ebb of the ocean with its flow.^[3]

British medieval writers use it for departure, for decease, for a retirement into religious life, and once for subtraction.^[7] Through Old French deces it is the source of English decease, first recorded in the early 14th century.^[6]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of the departure of the Gauls from Rome.^[2][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a governor's departure and of the death of friends.^[2][8]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of the ebb of the tide.^[2][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the fall of the Nile.^[5][8]
• 1088 – A charter in the Ramsey chronicle has land return to the abbot after a widow's death.^[7]
• early 14th century – English decease comes from it through Old French.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A going away, departure.^[2][5]
2. The retirement of a Roman magistrate from his province at the end of his term.^[2][5]
3. Death, decease.^[2][5]
4. A lessening, decline; the ebb of the tide, the fall of a river, the abatement of a disease.^[2][5]
5. (Medieval Latin) Retirement into religious life.^[7]
6. (Medieval Latin) Subtraction, deduction.^[7]

Related words

• dēcessiō
• English decease

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. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d 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
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de