dialysis

Forms

dialysis f (genitive dialysis or dialyseōs or dialysios); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek διάλυσις (diálusis, “separation, dissolution”),^[2][3][4][1] from διαλύω (dialúō, “to dissolve, separate”), made of διά (diá, “apart”) and λύω (lúō, “to loosen”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first author to use it is the rhetorician Rutilius Lupus, for whom it is a figure of speech: the joining words are left out and the parts of a sentence are spoken separately, the opposite of polysyndeton.^[4][3][6]

Semantic evolution

Besides the figure Rutilius Lupus describes (asyndeton), the grammarian Charisius uses it for one of the kinds of hyperbaton, a parenthesis.^[4] The grammarian Velius Longus uses it for the resolution of a diphthong into two vowels.^[2]

A medieval British writer on style still glosses it as a resolution.^[7] English took it over in logic and grammar in the 1580s.^[5]

Timeline

• 1st century BC – Rutilius Lupus names a figure of speech with it.^[4][6]
• c. 362 AD – Charisius uses it for a kind of hyperbaton.^[4][6]
• 1580s – English borrows it in logic and grammar.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rhetoric) Asyndeton, the leaving out of connecting words.^[4][3]
2. (grammar) A parenthesis, as a kind of hyperbaton.^[4]
3. (grammar) The resolution of a diphthong into two syllables.^[2]

Related words

• English dialysis

References

1. ^ a b 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ 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