icon

Forms

īcōn f (genitive īconis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek εἰκών (eikṓn, “likeness, image, portrait”).^[2][1][3] The TLL notes that it keeps the Greek accusative ending ⟨-ōn⟩, and that the Late Latin variant icona arose from the Vulgar Greek accusative εἰκόνα (eikóna).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as a term of rhetoric in the correspondence of Fronto, where Marcus Aurelius writes that he has worked out some icones, comparisons or images, and Fronto explains them.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The grammarians Sacerdos, Donatus, Charisius and Diomedes made it one of the three kinds of comparison, beside the parable and the example: an icon compares persons, or describes a person's figure.^[2][4] Cassiodorus explains it as imaginātiō, and Isidore of Seville as an imāgō.^[2] A reading icones in Pliny the Elder, which Lewis & Short cite, is a conjecture that the TLL and Georges reject.^[2][5]

In the Middle Ages, usually in the form icona, it meant a painted or carved image of God or the saints, an icon, and was often used of the image controversy in Byzantium;^[6][7][4] it could also mean a likeness or portrait in general,^[4][6] and in philosophy and theology an image as opposed to its model.^[6]

Timeline

• 100–170 AD – Fronto and Marcus Aurelius use it of rhetorical images.^[2][3]
• 3rd century AD – Sacerdos names it as a kind of comparison.^[2][3]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains it as imāgō.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rhetoric) An image, a comparison of one person with another, or the description of a figure.^[2][5][4]
2. (Medieval Latin) A painted or carved image of Christ or a saint, an icon.^[6][4][1]
3. (Medieval Latin) A likeness, portrait.^[4][7]

Word family

• īconicus
• icuncula

Related words

• īconismus
• English icon

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f 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
5. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill