dimissio

Forms

dīmissiō f (genitive dīmissiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin dīmittō + -tiō, “the act of sending away”.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero,^[4][3] who speaks in the Verrines of the discharge of the marines and rowers of a fleet.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Cicero also uses it for sending people off in different directions, as when freedmen were sent out to lend money in the provinces.^[5] Gellius has sanguinis dimissio, “bloodletting”, as a military punishment,^[2] and the physician Caelius Aurelianus uses it for the remission of a fever or pain, as the opposite of accessio.^[5] Christian Latin used it for the remission of sins.^[6]

Medieval Latin used it for lowering, for sending away and taking leave, for the repudiation of a wife, for a discharge of the body such as urine, and for release.^[7] In British legal records it is the discharge of executors, an acquittal and the dismissal of an appeal.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a discharge from service and of sending people out.^[5][3]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius writes of bloodletting as a military punishment.^[2][3]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it for the remission of a fever.^[5][3]
• 1418 – An English register records the discharge of executors.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sending out or away, dispatch.^[2][5]
2. A discharge from service; a dismissal.^[2][5][9]
3. sanguinis dīmissiō: bloodletting.^[2]
4. (medicine) The remission of a fever or pain.^[5]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The remission of sins.^[6]
6. (Medieval Latin) A lowering; the repudiation of a wife; a release.^[7]
7. (Medieval Latin, law) The discharge of executors; an acquittal; the dismissal of an appeal.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson