discessus

Forms

discessus m (genitive discessūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from discēdō (“to go apart, depart”) with the suffix -tus.^[2][3][1] The verb is dis- (“apart”) and cēdō (“to go, withdraw”), which de Vaan, following Lubotsky, derives from Proto-Italic *kesd-e/o- (“to go away, avoid”) and Proto-Indo-European *ḱiesdʰ- (“to drive away; to go away”), cognate with Sanskrit सेधति (sedhati, “drives away”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Varro on,^[3] who speaks of the separation of soul and body;^[2] Köbler gives Cicero.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is a separation or parting, also absence, as in Varro, and the splitting apart of something, as Cicero's caelī discessus, the opening of the sky in lightning.^[2][6] It is departure or going away, as Varro's interval between the doctor's leaving and the undertaker's coming, of armies marching off, and in Cicero's letters going away on holiday.^[2][6][1]

Church Latin glosses it “removal, departure, separation”,^[7] and medieval Latin uses it for dēcessus, death.^[8] Köbler finds it in councils, charters, Walahfrid and Thietmar.^[5]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro of the separation of soul and body.^[2][3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the opening of the sky and of a holiday.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A going apart, separation, parting; absence; an opening.^[2][6][1][7]
2. A departure, going away; a marching off; a departure on holiday.^[2][6][1][7]
3. (Medieval Latin) Death.^[8]

Related words

• discēdō
• cēdō
• discessiō
• dēcessus
• abitus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill