horizon

Forms

horizōn m (genitive horizontis); third declension^[1] The accusative is horizonta or horizontem.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ὁρίζων (horízōn, “bounding (circle)”),^[4][5][1] the present participle of ὁρίζω (horízō, “to bound, limit”), from ὅρος (hóros, “boundary”), whose further origin is unclear.^[6][7] The Latin rendering of the Greek term is fīnītor or the participle fīniēns.^[8][2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero mentions the circles that the Greeks call by this name and that Latin may call fīnientēs;^[9] the first Latin use is in Vitruvius (c. 84–c. 25 BC), who says that the mathematicians call the line dividing the upper and lower parts of the world horizōn.^[9][6]

Semantic evolution

It remained an astronomical term: the circle that divides the sky into a visible and an invisible half, in Seneca, Manilius, Hyginus, Macrobius and Martianus Capella,^[2][9] and in Vitruvius also a line through the centre of a sundial or a diagram of the celestial sphere.^[4][8][2] British medieval writers use it for the horizon, figuratively for a boundary or dividing line (an angel “created on the horizon of time and eternity”), and for an artificial horizon.^[10] It passed through Old French into English horizon in the late 14th century^[7] and into Italian as orizzonte.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of the horizon and of a line on a sundial.^[4][9][6]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it in the Natural Questions.^[2][3][6]
• first half of the 5th century AD – Macrobius uses it in his commentary on the Dream of Scipio.^[8][2][6]
• late 14th century – English borrows it, through Old French, as orisoun.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The horizon, the circle dividing the visible from the invisible half of the sky.^[4][8][2]
2. A line on a sundial or in a diagram of the celestial sphere corresponding to the horizon.^[4][8][2]
3. (Medieval Latin, figurative) A boundary, dividing line.^[10]

Related words

• fīnītor
• English horizon

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ a b 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