Etymologically
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horizon

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [hɔˈrɪz.zoːn][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [oˈrid.d͡zon][1]

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]

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