Etymologically
Log in

inclusio

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Latin word inclusio

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
81–43 BC, Cicero
Ultimate origin
Latin inclūdō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin claudo
Latin includo
English include
Latin inclusio
English inclusion
From the same root
Latin discludo ← claudo
Latin praecludo ← claudo
Latin recludo ← claudo
Latin secludo ← claudo

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪŋˈkɫuː.si.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [iŋˈkluː.s̬i.o][1]

Forms

inclūsiō f (genitive inclūsiōnis); third declension[1] Late and medieval texts also spell it inclausiō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin inclūdō (“to shut in”) + -tiō.[4][1] The verb is made from in- and claudō (“to shut”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero is its first author, in a sentence about the confinement of Bibulus: Bibulum, cuius inclūsiōne contentus nōn erās, interficere voluerās “not content with shutting Bibulus up, you wanted to kill him”.[2][5][4]

Semantic evolution

In Classical and Late Latin it is a shutting up, confinement or imprisonment;[4][5] a Psalter asks God to bring the soul out of confinement, and Cassiodorus uses it of the siege of a city.[2] The rhetorician known as Julius Rufinianus used it for the figure in which the same word begins and ends a sentence, the Greek epanadiplōsis.[2][5]

Gregory the Great used it of a monk's seclusion,[2] and in Medieval Latin it became the state of a recluse, the recluse's cell, and monastic enclosure, beside the older blockade and imprisonment.[3][6][7] British sources also used it of the fencing of land, or the enclosed land itself, and of a constriction in medicine.[7] English inclusion comes from it around 1600, in the sense “the act of making a part of”.[8]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the confinement of Bibulus.[2][5][9]
  • c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus uses it of a siege.[2][9]
  • 540–604 AD – Gregory the Great uses it of a monk's reclusion.[2][9]
  • 1305 – A Chester cartulary uses it of enclosing heathland.[7]
  • c. 1600 – English borrows inclusion.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. confinement, imprisonment.[4][5][1]
  2. (rhetoric) The repeating of a word at the beginning and end of a sentence.[5][2]
  3. (Late Latin) A siege, blockade.[2][3]
  4. (Medieval Latin) The life of a recluse; a recluse's cell; monastic enclosure.[3][6]
  5. (Medieval Latin) The enclosure of land; enclosed land.[7][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  7. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de

Borrowed into

Cite this entry

“Inclusio.” Etymologically, 23 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/inclusio. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·