iconographia

Forms

īconographia f (genitive īconographiae); first declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek εἰκονογραφία (eikonographía, “representation in a painting”),^[1][3][2] which Köbler connects with εἰκών (eikṓn, “image, likeness”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its only ancient record is in the Notae Tironianae, the Roman shorthand lists (78.13), where it is spelled iconigrafiae or iconografia.^[4][1] Georges explains it as depiction in a painting, Gaffiot as the art of drawing.^[1][3]

Semantic evolution

The TLL rejects a conjecture that would read ichno- there instead.^[4] In Medieval Latin it meant illustration by drawings or figures, the sense in which English took it over in the 1670s.^[5]

Timeline

• 1670s – English borrows it from Medieval Latin as iconography.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The art of drawing; depiction in a painting.^[1][3]
2. (Medieval Latin) Illustration by drawings or figures.^[5]

Related words

• English iconography

References

1. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
2. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
3. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com