discessio

Forms

discessiō f (genitive discessiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin discēdō (“to go apart, depart”) + -tiō.^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces cēdō to Proto-Italic *kesd-e/o- (“to go away”) and, following Lubotsky, to Proto-Indo-European *ḱiesdʰ- (“to drive away; go away”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Terence on,^[3] whose Andria speaks of a separation of husband and wife, which may the gods forbid.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is a going away or withdrawal: Tacitus has a man left alone by the departure of the others, and Gellius uses it of the separations of the stars.^[2] In the senate it is the division for a vote, and ⟨discessiōnem facere⟩ is to call for a division: Cicero speaks of a vote taken in favour of a man's proposal.^[2] It is also a split or schism, as of a crowd, and the secession of the plebs from the patricians in Sallust.^[2] Lewis & Short call it very rare.^[5] Köbler dates it from Cicero, and Church Latin glosses it departure, separation, revolt.^[6][7]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence of a separation of husband and wife.^[2][3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a division in the senate.^[2][6]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust of the secession of the plebs.^[2][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of a departure.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A going away, departure, withdrawal.^[2][1][7]
2. A division of the senate for a vote;^[2][5] discessiōnem facere, to call for a division.^[2]
3. A split, schism; a divorce; a separation, secession.^[2][5][1][7]

Related words

• discēdō

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 l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson