digressio

Forms

dīgressiō f (genitive dīgressiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin dīgredior (“to go apart, depart”) + -tiō.^[2][3][1] De Vaan lists the verb among the compounds of gradior (“to step, walk”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *grad-(e)i- and Proto-Indo-European *g(h)rd(h)-(e)i-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has both senses: in a letter to his brother he finds their meeting and then their parting harder to bear (“cum congressio, tum vero digressio nostra”), and in his early work on rhetorical invention it is a digression in a speech.^[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short note that for the literal parting the noun digressus was more frequent, while digressio was used mainly of a going aside, above all in speech: a digression.^[5]

Medieval writers used it of departure and distance, of the course of the sun, and figuratively of going astray, degeneration and confusion, as well as of digressions in a text.^[7][8][9] English took it over in the late 14th century,^[10] and Italian digressione and French digression continue it.^[3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of parting and of a digression in a speech.^[2][8]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as digressioun.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A parting, separation, departure.^[2][5]
2. (rhetoric) A digression, a passage that leaves the main subject.^[2][5][3]
3. (Medieval Latin) The course or progress of the sun.^[7]
4. (Medieval Latin) A going astray, degeneration; confusion.^[7][8]

Related words

• dīgredior
• English digression

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com