epilogus

Forms

epilogus m (genitive epilogī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐπίλογος (epílogos, “conclusion of a speech”),^[2][3][1] which is made of ἐπί (epí, “upon, at”) and λόγος (lógos, “speech, word”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero uses it of the closing part of a speech, the peroration, in the Brutus, De oratore and other works.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

It stayed a technical term of rhetoric; its native equivalents were peroratio and conclusio.^[5] Quintilian discusses it at length and treats it as a Greek word.^[5][6] Late manuscripts spell it aepilogus (Ammianus) or epylogus (Hegesippus), and a scholiast on Cicero has the Greek nominative epilogos.^[6]

In Medieval Latin it also meant a summary and an epitaph.^[7] English epilogue came through Old French in the early 15th century.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the peroration of a speech.^[5][4]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian discusses the epilogus of a speech.^[5][4]
• early 15th century – English borrows it, through Old French, as epilogue.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rhetoric) The concluding part of a speech, peroration.^[2][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) A summary.^[7]
3. (Medieval Latin) An epitaph.^[7]

Related words

• English epilogue

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com