excidium

Forms

excidium n (genitive excidiī or excidī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from exscindō (“to destroy”) with the suffix -ium.^[2][1] Lewis and Short note that it was usually referred to excīdō (“to cut out”), and that it is sometimes spelled ⟨exscidium⟩, as if from ⟨exscindō⟩.^[3] De Vaan traces ⟨scindō⟩ to Proto-Italic *ski-n-d-e/o- (“to split”) and Proto-Indo-European *ski-n-d- (“to split, tear off”), cognate with Sanskrit छिनत्ति (chinátti, “splits”) and Ancient Greek σχίζω (skhízō, “to split”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Plautus.^[5] The OLD's earliest example is Sallust's “the fate of destruction for the city of Rome”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means military destruction, the overthrow of towns and countries, as in Virgil's man who attacks a city with ruin.^[2][3] It is also used of the slaughter of peoples and troops, as in Virgil and Livy.^[2][1] Lewis and Short note that it is not frequent before the Augustan poets.^[3]

Church Latin glosses it “annihilation”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[5]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust of the destruction of Rome.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of cities and peoples destroyed.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Destruction, overthrow, ruin of a town or country.^[2][3][1][6]
2. Slaughter of a people or army.^[2][1]

Related words

• exscindō
• scindō

Usage notes

A rare second excidium, from excidō “fall out”, means the setting of the sun in Prudentius.^[3][1][5]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson