destillatio

Forms

dēstīllātiō f (genitive dēstīllātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dēstillō (“to drip down”) + -tiō.^[2][1][3] That verb is formed from dē- (“down”) and stīllō (“to drip”),^[2] which is made from stīlla (“a drop”).^[1]

The spelling ⟨dist-⟩ is frequent.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Celsus,^[5] who uses it as a medical term for a catarrh, noting the Greek name for it, and lists it with colds among the ailments brought on by changes between cold and heat.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Seneca, Scribonius Largus and Pliny the Elder it is the name of a running discharge from the head, the chest, the throat or the stomach;^[3] Seneca says that a single catarrh produces a cough, but a constant and long-standing one consumption.^[3] A graffito at Pompeii reads destillātiō mē tenet, “I have a catarrh”.^[3] Suetonius and Ammianus use it with the liver, which L&S takes as an abscess.^[3][6] L&S also gives the general sense “a dripping down”.^[6]

In medieval Latin the general sense of dripping, running or flowing returns beside catarrh, and the word gains an alchemical and pharmaceutical sense, distillation, and by metonymy “eaves, gutter” and “distillate”.^[4] British writers use it for the dripping of water or of torches and, in alchemy, for distilling, as of making aqua vītae from strong wine in an alembic.^[7]

Timeline

• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it for catarrh.^[3][5]
• c. 47 AD – Scribonius Largus prescribes a lozenge for catarrh of the chest.^[3][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it often of catarrhs.^[3][5]
• c. 1170/1182 – A Cologne charter uses it for the drip from a roof, the eaves.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine) A rheum, catarrh, a running discharge.^[2][6]
2. A dripping down.^[6][7]
3. (Medieval Latin, alchemy) Distillation; a distillate.^[4][7]
4. (Medieval Latin) The eaves or gutter of a roof.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c 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