Etymologically
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ductus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈdʊk.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈduk.tus][1]

Forms

ductus m (genitive ductūs); fourth declension[1] An inscription has a neuter ductum.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin dūcō (“to lead, draw”) + -tus, a fourth-declension action noun.[2][3][1] De Vaan traces dūcō to Proto-Italic *douk-e- and Proto-Indo-European *deuk-e/o- (“to draw”).[4] Cognate with Middle Welsh dwc (“leads, brings”) and Albanian nduk (“to pull”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,[4][5] who in the Amphitruo speaks of a commander who conducted the state's business under his own command.[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is military leadership or command, and Ovid uses it figuratively of a girl captured under his leadership.[2] It also means the conveyance of water, and aquae ductus, also written as one word, is an aqueduct, as in Cicero's letters and Frontinus' work on the aqueducts of Rome.[2][6] It means a movement in a particular line, as Seneca's carver guiding his skilled hand along the breast, a line drawn or an outline, and a linear arrangement, as Cicero's line of the city wall.[2] In rhetoric it is a line of treatment, as in Quintilian.[2] It also means drawing or pulling, as Columella's pruning done with a draw of the knife, and a draught of fish.[2]

Church Latin glosses it leadership, direction, purpose, and the swing of a censer.[7] In medieval Latin it can mean carting.[8] English borrowed duct in the 1640s.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of military command.[2][4][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of an aqueduct and of the line of a wall.[2][5]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a girl captured under his leadership.[2][5]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of a carver's movements.[2][5]
  • 1640s – Borrowed into English as duct.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Military leadership, command; generalship.[2][6][1]
  2. The conveyance of water;[2][6][1] aquae ductus, an aqueduct.[2][6][1]
  3. Movement in a particular line, a controlled movement.[2]
  4. A line drawn, an outline; a linear arrangement.[2][6]
  5. (rhetoric) A line of treatment; the structure of a play.[2][1]
  6. Drawing, pulling; a draught of fish.[2]
  7. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Direction, purpose; the swing of a censer.[7]
  8. (Medieval Latin) Carting.[8]

Word family

  • interductus
  • aquaeductus
  • ōviductus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d 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 e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com