eclipsis

Forms

eclīpsis f (genitive eclīpsis); third declension^[1] The accusative is ⟨eclīpsim⟩ or ⟨eclīpsin⟩.^[2][3] Later spellings include ⟨aeclipsis⟩, ⟨heclipsis⟩, ⟨ecclipsis⟩ and ⟨eclypsis⟩.^[2][4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἔκλειψις (ékleipsis, “a failing, forsaking; eclipse”).^[6][7][5][1] The Greek noun comes from ἐκλείπω (ekleípō, “to leave out, forsake; to be eclipsed”), from ἐκ (ek, “out”) and λείπω (leípō, “to leave”).^[1][5][8] The native Latin words were dēfectiō and dēfectus.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL's and Conte's first instance is in Varro's Menippean satires, quoted in the longer commentary of Servius on the Georgics: eclipsis quandō fit, cūr lūna labōret, “when an eclipse happens, why the moon is in distress”.^[2][3] The Rhetorica ad Herennium says that people marvel at eclipses of the sun, because they are rare, more than at those of the moon.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

Pliny the Elder uses it beside dēfectus, and Hyginus in his astronomy explains the eclipse of the moon.^[2][10][9] A fragment of Suetonius says that the sun suffers an eclipsis, which in Latin is called dēfectiō,^[2] Servius reports that Atreus first discovered the eclipse of the sun,^[2] and Ambrose and Cassiodorus explain how eclipses happen.^[2] Isidore of Seville defines the eclipse of the sun and of the moon,^[11] and uses it in grammar for the omission of necessary words, the figure otherwise called ellipsis.^[11][2] Facundus speaks figuratively of an eclipse, as it were, of the lights Theophilus and Cyril,^[2] and in Gregory of Tours it is a fainting fit brought on by pain.^[2]

Medieval annals and chronicles record eclipses year by year,^[4][12] and Bede reports that the philosophers say the moon is sometimes darkened by a shadow pointed like a pyramid.^[12] Figuratively it meant decline, loss, interruption, restraint and even death;^[4] a 14th-century charter says that royal majesty would not keep to the path of law if justice suffered an eclipse in its right hand.^[13] English eclipse came from it through Old French about 1300.^[8]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro asks when an eclipse happens.^[2][3][5]
• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium speaks of eclipses of the sun and moon.^[2][9][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder writes of predicting an eclipse.^[2][10][5]
• 538/539–594 AD – Gregory of Tours uses it of a fainting fit.^[2][5]
• mid 6th century AD – Facundus uses it figuratively.^[2][5]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville defines eclipses of the sun and moon.^[11][5]
• c. 1300 – English eclipse is recorded.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. An eclipse of the sun or moon.^{[6][9][10][14]}
2. (Late Latin, figurative) A darkening, a loss of lustre.^[2][4]
3. (Late Latin, medicine) A fainting fit.^[2]
4. (grammar) Ellipsis, the omission of a word.^[11][2][4]
5. (Medieval Latin) Decline, loss, interruption; death.^[4][13][15]

Word family

• eclīpticus

Related words

• English eclipse

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
11. ^ a b c d Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
12. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
14. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
15. ^ Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl