disiunctio

Forms

disiūnctiō f (genitive disiūnctiōnis); third declension^[1] The OLD and L&S also record the form dīiunctiō.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin disiungō (“to unyoke, separate”) + -tiō.^[2][1] De Vaan traces the base iungō (“to yoke, join”) to Proto-Italic *jung-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *(H)iunégti (“to yoke”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero,^[5] who in De inventione writes of lamenting a separation from someone with whom one had lived most happily.^[2]

Semantic evolution

L&S calls it a Ciceronian word.^[3] Cicero used it of separation from people, of the breaking of a relationship, and of a difference of minds, which, he says, causes dissension.^[2][3] In logic it was a disjunctive proposition, one of two statements joined by “either … or”,^[2][3] and in rhetoric a figure of speech, rendering Greek terms, in which clauses are kept apart or each is given a different synonym.^[2][3] The Rhetorica ad Herennium treats it as an ornament of style,^[2] and Quintilian and Gellius use the term too.^[3]

In medieval Latin Niermeyer records the sense “partition”.^[6] English took the word from Old French and Latin about 1400 as disjunction, first of the fracture of a bone.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of separation from a person and of a disjunctive proposition in logic.^[2][5]
• c. 1400 – English borrows it as disjunction.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Separation (from a person); severance or rupture of a relationship.^[2][3]
2. Difference, divergence (of minds or opinions).^[3]
3. (logic) A disjunctive proposition.^[2][3]
4. (rhetoric) A figure in which clauses are kept distinct, each with a different synonym.^[2][3]
5. (Medieval Latin) Partition.^[6]

Related words

• English disjunction

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com