dioecesis

Forms

dioecēsis f (genitive dioecēsis or dioecēseōs or dioecēsios); third declension^[1] The genitive is dioecēseōs or dioecēsis.^[2][3] Late and medieval texts also spell it diocesis, diocisis and diocesa.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek διοίκησις (dioíkēsis, “administration; district”),^[2][5][6] the noun of διοικέω (dioikéō, “to administer”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero uses it in his letters from his province for the administrative districts of Asia attached to Cilicia,^[3][6] though in some letters he still writes it in Greek letters.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Roman administration it first meant a district of a province under a governor's jurisdiction, as inscriptions show for Alexandria and Carthage.^[3][2] After Diocletian it named the larger divisions of the empire, each containing several provinces.^[3][7]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it came to mean a bishop's jurisdiction, the diocese, as in Sidonius, and sometimes a parish.^[5] Medieval texts use it for the diocese, its parishes and a single parish church, for an ecclesiastical province and for a bishop's jurisdiction.^[4] English took the word over through Old French in the mid-14th century.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the districts of Asia attached to his province.^[3][6]
• 438 AD – The Theodosian Code uses it of an administrative district.^[5][6]
• c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius uses it of a bishop's jurisdiction.^[5][6]
• 538/539–594 AD – Gregory of Tours writes it diocesis.^[3][6]
• mid-14th century – English borrows it, through Old French, as diocese.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. An administrative district of a Roman province, a governor's jurisdiction.^[2][5]
2. (Late Latin) One of the larger divisions of the later empire, comprising several provinces.^[3]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A bishop's jurisdiction, a diocese.^[5][8][4]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A parish;^[5][4] (Medieval Latin) a parish church.^[5][4]
5. (Medieval Latin, plural) The parishes making up a diocese.^[4]
6. (Medieval Latin) An ecclesiastical province; diocesan jurisdiction.^[4]

Word family

• dioecēsānus

References

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