Etymologically
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dissignatio

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Forms

dissignātiō f (genitive dissignātiōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dis- + signō (“to mark”) + -tiō,[1] or, as the TLL, Georges and Gaffiot put it, from the verb dissignō (“to arrange, order”).[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Cicero,[5][1] who in De natura deorum has a speaker ask for the whole plan and apparatus of a work.[1][2] Some manuscripts there read des-.[1][2]

Semantic evolution

Besides “plan, arrangement”,[1][3] the word named the office of the dissignator, an official who acted as master of ceremonies at funerals;[1] the Lex Iulia municipalis lists it beside the herald's trade and undertaking.[1][2] The TLL also records a use in Arnobius that it explains as wrongdoing, perhaps for des-.[2]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for the plan of a work.[1][5]
  • 297–310 AD – Arnobius uses it in a sense the TLL explains as wrongdoing.[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Plan, arrangement.[1][3][4][6]
  2. The office of the dissignator, the master of ceremonies at funerals.[1][3][4]
  3. (Late Latin) Wrongdoing (perhaps a reading for dēsignātiō).[2]

Usage notes

Lewis & Short treat it as another form of dēsignātiō.[7]

References

  1. ^ 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
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press