Etymologically
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geographicus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɡe.oːˈɡra.pʰɪ.kʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [d͡ʒe.oˈɡraː.fi.kus][1]

Forms

geōgraphicus (feminine geōgraphica, neuter geōgraphicum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek γεωγραφικός (geōgraphikós, “geographical”),[2][3][4] the adjective of γεωγραφία (geōgraphía);[1] Wiktionary analyses it within Latin as geōgraphia with -icus.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero wrote it in Greek letters in a letter to Atticus;[2] as a Latin word it appears in Ammianus Marcellinus (c. 390),[4] who speaks of the writings of the geographers.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Martianus Capella refers to the opinion of Ptolemy in his geographical work.[3] Medieval Latin kept it in the same sense,[5] as did Ecclesiastical Latin.[6] English geographic (1620s) is mostly a shortening of geographical, but in some uses is probably from French géographique or Late Latin geographicus.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus uses it.[2][3][4]
  • 5th century AD – Martianus Capella refers to Ptolemy's geographical work.[3][4]
  • 1620s – English has geographic.[7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (Late Latin) Geographical, of geography.[2][3][6][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com