delusio

Forms

dēlūsiō f (genitive dēlūsiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dēlūdō (“to mock, deceive”) + -tiō, formed on the past participle stem ⟨dēlūs-⟩.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first author to use it is Arnobius (297–310 AD), in his work against the pagans, of the mocking of the gods.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

It was a Late Latin word for mockery and deception.^[2][6] Fulgentius speaks of the windy illusion of an idle dream,^[2] and a rhetorical treatise used it for the figure of disparagement, Greek diasyrmos.^[7]

In Medieval Latin it meant deception and fraud, as in the Libri Carolini of a deception by the evil spirit, a delusion or phantom, and mockery.^[8][9] British writers used it of an evasive answer and of an island that deceived those who saw it.^[6] English delusion (early 15th century) came from it, first meaning “deception”; the sense of a fixed false belief dates from the 1550s.^[3]

Timeline

• 297–310 AD – Arnobius uses it of the mocking of the gods.^[2][4][5]
• c. 500 AD – Fulgentius has it of the illusion of a dream.^[2][5]
• c. 790 – The Libri Carolini speak of a deception by the evil spirit.^[8][5]
• 1169 – A letter in the Becket correspondence uses it of an evasive answer.^[6]
• early 15th century – Borrowed into English as delusion.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A deceiving, deluding; delusion.^[4][2][6]
2. Mockery, ridicule.^[2][7][9]
3. (rhetoric) The figure of disparagement.^[7]
4. (Medieval Latin) An illusion, phantom.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill