disseminatio

Forms

dissēminātiō f (genitive dissēminātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin dissēminō + -tiō, from dissēminō (“to sow broadcast, spread abroad”).^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Apuleius has it in the Metamorphoses, in the plural, for the gossip of ill-wishers that the speaker no longer fears.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Its sense is the action of spreading abroad.^[2] Tertullian writes of the spreading of the gospel,^[3][4] and the Itala uses it in Deuteronomy for the scattering of Israel among all the kingdoms of the earth.^[3] English took it over in the 1640s for the spreading abroad of opinions, perhaps also as a formation from the English verb.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius writes of the disseminationes of ill-wishers.^[3][4][6]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian writes of the spreading of the gospel.^[3][4][6]
• after 220 AD – The Itala uses it for the scattering of a people.^[3][6]
• 1640s – English borrows it as dissemination.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The action of spreading abroad, dissemination.^[2][3]
2. A sowing of seed.^[4][1]
3. A scattering, dispersion (of a people).^[3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de