Etymologically
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decessus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [deːˈkɛs.sʊs], [deːˈkɛs.suːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [deˈt͡ʃɛs.sus], [deˈt͡ʃɛs.sus][1]

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]

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