incisio

Forms

incīsiō f (genitive incīsiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin incīdō² (“to cut into”) + -tiō.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero uses it in the Orator as a term of rhetoric, for the short members into which a period is divided, which he calls as it were its “incisions”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In rhetoric it was the equivalent of incisum and of Ancient Greek κόμμα (kómma).^[2][3] The literal sense, a cutting into the body, appears in the physician Scribonius Largus and in Ambrose;^[2][3] Vegetius uses the plural for gripes or colic in animals,^[4][5] and Diomedes uses it for the caesura of a verse.^[4][5]

Medieval Latin added many senses from cutting: harvesting, the felling of wood and the right to fell it, the retail sale of cloth, a tallage, engraving, a division or split, a section of a book, and a rest in music;^[6][7] British sources use it of surgery and phlebotomy.^[8] English took incision in the late 14th century, from Old French and directly from Latin.^[9]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for a short member of a period.^[2][10]
• c. 340–397 AD – Ambrose uses it for an incision in a wound.^[3][11][10]
• 2nd half of the 4th century AD – Diomedes uses it for a caesura.^[4][5][10]
• 1056 – A charter of Emperor Henry III uses it for a tallage.^[7]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as incision.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cutting into, an incision.^[2][3]
2. (rhetoric) A short member of a sentence, a clause or phrase.^[2][3]
3. (prosody) A caesura.^[4][5][1]
4. (in the plural) Gripes, colic.^[4][5]
5. (Medieval Latin) A cut in surgery or phlebotomy.^[8]
6. (Medieval Latin) A harvest; the felling of wood, or the right to fell it.^[6]
7. (Medieval Latin) The retail sale of cloth.^[6]
8. (Medieval Latin) A tallage.^[6][7]
9. (Medieval Latin) Engraving, carving.^[6][8]
10. (Medieval Latin) A section or chapter of a book.^[6][7]
11. (Medieval Latin, music) A rest.^[6]

Related words

• incīsor
• incīsīvus
• English incision

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
5. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b c d du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
11. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn