dialecticus

Forms

dialecticus (feminine dialectica, neuter dialecticum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] The adverb is dialecticē.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek διαλεκτικός (dialektikós, “dialectical”).^[3][1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[4] who writes that dialecticians examine every statement to judge whether it is true or false.^[3]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it means related to reasoning, logical, dialectical, especially of the method of the Academy;^[3] Cicero has dialectical quibbles, captiōnēs dialecticae, and Quintilian dialectical disputations.^[2] As a masculine noun it is a logician or dialectician, also an Academic philosopher.^[3] The feminine dialectica is the art of reasoning, logic: Varro, quoted by Isidore, contrasts it with rhetoric, the one compressing words and the other expanding them.^[3] Cicero uses the adverb dialecticē of arguing in the manner of the logicians.^[2]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro, of dialectic beside rhetoric.^[3][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of logicians and dialectical quibbles.^[3][2][4]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian, of dialectical disputations.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Related to reasoning, logical, dialectical;^[3][2][1] of creatures, having reasoning power.^[3]

Noun

1. A logician, dialectician;^[3][1] an Academic philosopher.^[3]

Related words

• dialectica
• dialectos

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de