festinatio

Forms

festīnātiō f (genitive festīnātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from festīnō (“to hurry”) with the suffix -tiō.^[2][3] De Vaan, following Schrijver, traces ⟨festīnō⟩ to a noun Proto-Italic *fristi- (“haste”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhristi-, cognate with Welsh brys (“haste”);^[4] Vine thinks the verb was built on an older adjective, the later attested festīnus (“hasty”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Cicero,^[3] who writes in a letter that he hurried home with all speed.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means speed, haste, hurry, also in the plural, and promptness in dealing with a situation.^[2][5] Often it is undue haste or impatience, as in Cicero's Philippics: “my haste is greedy not only for victory but for speed”.^[2] Pliny the Elder uses it of hastening a process, of wine made from unripe grapes.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “haste, hurry, dispatch, speed”.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of hurrying home and of impatient haste.^[2][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of hastening wine.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Haste, hurry, speed; promptness.^[2][5][1][6]
2. Undue haste, impatience.^[2]
3. A hastening of a process.^[2]

Related words

• festīnō
• cōnfestim

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson