Etymologically
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incursus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪŋˈkʊr.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [iŋˈkur.sus][1]

Forms

incursus m (genitive incursūs); fourth declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin incurrō (“to run into, attack”) + -tus, a verbal noun of the fourth declension.[2][3] The verb is from in- and currō (“to run”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *korse/o- (“to run”) and Proto-Indo-European *kr̥s-e/o- (“to run”).[4] Cognate with Old Irish carr (“vehicle”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Cicero,[5] who tells of a man who fled the attack of the armed Antiochus and the weapons and onrush of the others.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is above all a military word for an attack or onslaught, also of wind and waves, and a raid or inroad, as in Ovid's complaint of cold and raids to be feared on every side.[2][6] Without hostility it is a run forward, as in Pliny the Elder on horses trained to an ambling pace.[2] Mela uses it of the inflow of water, a river made larger by the inrush of others, and Ovid of the impact of waves.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “attack, assault”,[7] and in medieval documents it is the confiscation or forfeiture of goods.[8]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of the onrush of armed men.[2][5]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of raids and of the impact of waves.[2][5]
  • 1st century AD – Mela of the inflow of rivers.[2]
  • Middle Ages – Of forfeiture.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An attack, assault, onslaught; a raid, inroad.[2][6][1]
  2. A run forward, advance.[2]
  3. An inflow of water, influx.[2]
  4. A striking against, collision, impact.[2][1]
  5. (Medieval Latin) Forfeiture, confiscation.[8]

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 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. ^ a b 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill