immersio

Forms

immersiō f (genitive immersiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin immergō (“to plunge in, dip”) + -tiō, a noun of action from the verb's past participle stem.^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL's earliest instance is a figurative one in an Old Latin psalter, where “words of immersion” means words of ruin (the Vulgate has praecipitatio).^[2] The first dated author is Arnobius, who uses it of a plunging into a liquid.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

It meant the act of dipping or plunging something in, and an ancient glossary renders it with Greek “sinking”.^[2][6] Medieval writers used it for sinking or drowning: a ship filled with water threatens everyone aboard with immersion.^[6] In British sources it was the word for immersion in baptism, often the triple immersion, which Lanfranc and Anselm explain by the three days Christ lay in the tomb.^[7] English immersion (c. 1500) comes from the Late Latin word.^[3]

Timeline

• 297–310 AD – Arnobius uses it of a plunging into a liquid.^[2][5]
• c. 768 – The Cosmography of Aethicus uses it of ships and waves.^[6][5]
• 1200 – A church council in England uses it of baptismal immersion.^[7]
• c. 1500 – English borrows it as immersion.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) A plunging or dipping into something, immersion.^[4][2][8]
2. (Late Latin, figurative) Ruin, destruction.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) Sinking, drowning.^[6]
4. (Medieval Latin) Immersion in baptism.^[7]

Related words

• English immersion

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson