Etymologically
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diagramma

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Forms

diagramma n (genitive diagrammatis); third declension[1][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek διάγραμμα (diágramma, “figure, outline, drawing”),[1][3][4] from διαγράφω (diagráphō, “to mark out by lines, delineate”),[4][5] a compound of διά (diá, “through, across”) and γράφω (gráphō, “to write, draw”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Vitruvius,[4][6] who uses it in music for the scale of tones: he says he will add Aristoxenus' diagram of the notes.[7][2]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin the word is a technical term with two uses: the musical scale in Vitruvius and a drawn outline in the land surveyors, whose writings have a section headed terminorum diagrammata, “outlines of boundaries”.[7][8][2] The OLD defines it simply as a figure or diagram.[1]

Medieval Latin kept the geometrical sense, a figure drawn with lines and angles, and Albertus Magnus also used it for a proposition or abstract notion, the elements on which other demonstrations rest.[9] English took the word, through French, as diagram in the 17th century.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it for the musical scale.[6][7][4]
  • Middle Ages – Albertus Magnus uses it for geometrical figures and for propositions.[9]
  • 1610s – English borrows it, through French, as diagram.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A figure or diagram.[1]
  2. (music) The scale of tones, the gamut.[6][2][10]
  3. An outline or tracing, as of boundaries.[8][2]
  4. (Medieval Latin) A geometrical figure or drawing.[9]
  5. (Medieval Latin) A proposition or abstract notion.[9]

Usage notes

Vitruvius' phrase diagramma musicum denotes the musical scale.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  9. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  10. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier