gradatim

Forms

gradātim (not comparable)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin gradus (“step”) + -ātim, an adverb of manner.^[1][2][3] De Vaan lists it among the words built on the stem ⟨grad-⟩ of gradior (“to step, walk”) and the noun.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the OLD first find it in Varro,^[4][2] who in his work on farming describes an aviary built up in steps like a little theatre.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From physical steps it passed to successive degrees or stages: Varro also has human life descending by degrees from the earliest times to his own age,^[2] and Cicero uses it of duties owed in order of precedence, first to the gods, then to the country, then to parents, then to the rest.^[2] Cicero pairs it with pedetentim for a cautious approach,^[5] and uses it in rhetoric of rising step by step.^[5][6] The TLL finds it from Varro and Cicero on but not in the poets, except Prudentius.^[3]

Döderlein contrasts it and pedetentim, which picture a deliberate advance, with paulatim and sensim, an imperceptible one.^[7] Medieval writers used it for step-by-step progress, of descending a ladder, in heraldry for a stepped design, and in building for storeys.^[8]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro describes an aviary built in steps.^[2][9]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of duties in order of precedence.^[2][9]
• 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius uses it in verse.^[3][9]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it figuratively of words advancing step by step.^[8][9]

Meanings

Adverb

1. By steps, not steeply; at rising or falling intervals.^[2]
2. (transferred) By degrees, gradually, step by step, progressively.^[2][5][10]
3. In order of precedence.^[2]
4. (Medieval Latin, heraldry) In the manner of steps.^[8]

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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
8. ^ a b c 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
9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson