deminutio

Forms

dēminūtiō f (genitive dēminūtiōnis); third declension^[1] Manuscripts write it both dēm- and dīm-.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin dēminuō (“to lessen”) + -tiō.^[2][1][3] That verb is dē- with minuō (“to diminish”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *minu-je/o- (“to lessen”) and a nasal present Proto-Indo-European *mi-n(e)-h₁- (“to make less”), later ⟨*mi-n(e)-u-⟩.^[4] He compares Sanskrit मिनाति (minā́ti, “to damage, diminish”) and Ancient Greek μινύθω (minúthō, “to lessen”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Varro, the Rhetorica ad Herennium and Cicero on.^[3] The OLD's first quotation is Varro's, of words made obscure by shortening, as deunx “eleven twelfths” is an as with an ounce taken away.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the making smaller of a thing in size or amount: Cicero writes of the waxing and waning of light, of the depletion of citizens, and of a cut in revenues.^[2][5] In law it is the deduction of money from an estate, and a right to make such a deduction; more generally it is a subtraction, as when Servius Sulpicius writes to Cicero of the great loss to the power of the Roman people.^[2][5] It is also the lessening of a quality or force, as Cicero's diminution of your liberty, and a loss suffered by a person.^[2] The legal phrase capitis dēminūtiō is the loss of civil rights.^[2] In rhetoric the Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it for understatement, saying less of a fine quality than one has; grammarians use it for the forming of a diminutive.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro of shortening a word.^[2][3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of waning light and a depletion of citizens.^[2][5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A making smaller, diminution, decrease; a reduction in number.^[2][5][1]
2. (law) A deduction of money from an estate, or the right to make one; also a subtraction of anything abstract.^[2]
3. A lessening of force or scope, abatement; a loss or injury suffered by a person.^[2][5]
4. capitis dēminūtiō: loss of civil rights.^[2]
5. (rhetoric) Understatement;^[2][1] (grammar) the forming of a diminutive.^[2][1]

Related words

• minuō
• minor
• English diminution

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de