digestio

Forms

dīgestiō f (genitive dīgestiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin dīgerō (“to carry apart, distribute”) + -tiō.^[2][3][1] De Vaan lists the verb among the compounds of gerō (“to bear, carry”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *ges-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂ǵ-es- (“to carry”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Cicero, for the arrangement or division of the material of a speech.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense was a laying out or setting in order: Pliny the Elder uses it of the arrangement of circles in the heavens, and Velleius Paterculus of an orderly reckoning of years.^[2] In medicine it named the distribution of food through the body: Celsus wonders whether the process is a cooking (concoctio) or only a digestio,^[2][6] and Quintilian speaks of easy digestion.^[6]

Medieval writers used it for digestion,^[7][8] also of plants and of matter being digested, and figuratively.^[8] Medical texts used it for excretion and purging, for purification, for the refining of materials, and even for excrement.^[9][5] English took it over in the late 14th century, partly through Old French.^[10]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the arrangement of a speech's material.^[2][5]
• c. 20 BC–30 AD – Velleius Paterculus uses it of setting years in order.^[2][5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of the distribution of food in the body.^[2][5]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as digestioun.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The distribution of assimilated food through the body; digestion.^[2][6]
2. Arrangement, a laying out or setting in order.^[2]
3. (rhetoric) The division of the material of a speech into parts.^[2][3]
4. An orderly reckoning or enumeration.^[2]
5. (Medieval Latin) Excretion, purging; excrement.^[9]
6. (Medieval Latin) Matter being digested.^[8]

Word family

• indigestio

Related words

• dīgerō
• English digestion

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com