fictio

Forms

fictiō f (genitive fictiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from fingō “to shape, feign” with the suffix -tiō.^[2][1][3] A popular form ⟨finctiō⟩ is in the apocryphal letters of Paul and in Augustine.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citations are from Quintilian, and Lewis and Short call it post-Augustan and especially frequent in Quintilian.^[2][4] Köbler dates Quintilian c. 35–95/96 AD.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant shaping, fashioning, formation, and the coining of words, as in Quintilian and Gellius' vōcum fictiōnēs.^[2][6] It meant a feigning, pretence, and persōnae fictiō personification, prosopopoeia, and a supposition, and in law a legal fiction enabling an action to be brought.^[2]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant guile, fiction, creation.^[7] Medieval Latin used it of feigning, deceit and hypocrisy, and British Medieval Latin of God's fashioning of man.^[8][9] English fiction came in the early 15th century through Old French, first “something invented in the mind”.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of fashioning and of supposition.^[2][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of coined words.^[6][5]
• early 15th century – English fiction is recorded.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shaping, fashioning; the coining of words.^[2]
2. A feigning, pretence, persōnae fictiō, personification.^[2]
3. A supposition, (law) a legal fiction.^[2]
4. (Medieval Latin) Deceit, hypocrisy.^[8]

Related words

• fingō
• fictus
• figmentum
• English fiction

References

1. ^ a b 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com