incrementum

Forms

incrēmentum n (genitive incrēmentī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin incrēscō (“to grow, increase”) + -mentum,^[2][1][3] from in- and crēscō (“to grow”).^[1] The verb crēscō goes back to Proto-Italic *krē- (“to grow”) and Proto-Indo-European *k(ʷ)reh₁- (“to become bigger, stronger”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Cicero,^[5] who says that, for the Epicureans, length of time adds no increase to the highest good.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is growth or increase, of plants and animals, as Cicero's growth of vines, and of the mind or character.^[2][6] In Ovid it is that which will grow into something, as the serpent's teeth that are the seeds of a future people.^[2] It is also an addition, and in Virgil an offspring, “great offspring of Jupiter”;^[2] Columella uses it of the amount of growth of plants.^[2] Velleius uses it of advancement in rank, Pliny the Elder of the improvement of wine with age, and Quintilian of a figure of speech that rises through ever stronger expressions.^[2]

In medieval texts it is an accretion and the profit from coinage.^[7] Church Latin glosses it “increase, growth, augmentation”.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of increase and of the growth of vines.^[2][6][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of offspring.^[2][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of the seeds of a people.^[2][5]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of a figure of speech.^[2][5]
• mid-15th century – Borrowed into English as increment.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Growth, increase, development.^[2][6][1]
2. An addition; offspring; an offshoot.^[2][1]
3. Advancement in rank; improvement in quality.^[2]
4. (rhetoric) A climax of ever stronger expressions.^[2]
5. (Medieval Latin) Profit from coinage.^[7]

Word family

• incrēmentulum

Related words

• incrēscō
• crēscō
• English increment

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 k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com