expansio

Forms

expānsiō f (genitive expānsiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin expandō (“to spread out”) + -tiō,^[1][2][3] an action noun formed on the participle ⟨expānsus⟩.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is a Late Latin word.^[5][6] Jerome, commenting on Ezekiel, speaks of “not only the stretching out but the expansio of the hand of God”.^[2][7][3]

Semantic evolution

In Late Latin it is the spreading out of the hands or the stretching of the body, a medical use in Caelius Aurelianus,^[3][5] and Christian writers used it of the arms of Christ spread on the cross.^[3][6]

Medieval writers widened it to the spreading of branches or wings,^[8] to extension in space in philosophy,^[6][8] to an expanse or an extent,^[6] and to the range of someone's authority.^[8] It is the source of French expansion, Italian espansione and Spanish expansión,^[1][7] and English expansion came from French in the 1610s.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 383–419/420 – Jerome uses it of the hand of God.^[2][9]
• 5th century – Caelius Aurelianus uses it of the stretching of the body.^[3][9]
• 13th century – Albertus Magnus uses it of the spreading of branches.^[8][9]
• 1610s – English borrows French expansion.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A spreading out, stretching out (of the hands or the body).^[3][10][5]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) expansion.^[11]
3. (Medieval Latin) extension in space; an expanse, an extent.^[6][8]
4. (Medieval Latin) The range of a person's power or influence.^[8]

Related words

• expandō
• English expansion

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e 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
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
10. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
11. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson