elisio

Forms

ēlīsiō f (genitive ēlīsiōnis); third declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin ēlīdō + -tiō, an action noun from the verb meaning “to strike out, force out”.^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Seneca has it in his letters to Lucilius,^[1][3] of tears that fall by being forced out against our will (lacrimae per elisionem cadunt).^[3]

Semantic evolution

Apart from Seneca's pressing out of tears, the TLL records a general sense of overthrow in Fulgentius.^[3] From the 3rd century AD it became a technical term of the grammarians, the dropping of a letter or sound when words meet, elision: Sacerdos uses it to explain synaloepha, and Diomedes and Priscian use it too.^[3][4][5]

Medieval Latin used it for expulsion, exclusion or avoidance, and for bruising, injury and damage;^[6] in British sources it could mean the parrying or nullifying of a legal action, as in Bracton, or dejection.^[7]

Timeline

• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of tears being forced out.^[3][8]
• 3rd century AD – Sacerdos uses it as a grammatical term.^[3][4][8]
• 1276 – A Zurich charter uses it in the sense of exclusion or avoidance.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A forcing or pressing out, as of tears.^[1][2]
2. (grammar) The striking out of a letter or sound, elision.^[2][3]
3. (Medieval Latin) Expulsion; exclusion, avoidance.^[6]
4. (Medieval Latin) A bruise, injury or damage.^[6]
5. (Medieval Latin, law) The parrying or nullifying of an action.^[7]

Related words

• English elision

References

1. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de