inflexio

Forms

īnflexiō f (genitive īnflexiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin īnflectō (“to bend, curve”) + -tiō,^[2][1] the verb being in-¹ and flectō (“to bend”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Cicero: in De oratore he praises a vigorous and manly bending of the sides,^[2][3] laterum inflexione hac forti ac virili, meaning the bearing of an orator's body.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Cicero also uses it for the modification of words and of speech.^[2] After Cicero the TLL finds it first in Optatianus Porfyrius, Chalcidius and Nonius.^[4] Ammianus Marcellinus uses it of the curve of the Bosporus,^[3][5] and Macrobius made it a grammatical term for the change of a word's form.^[3][6] Medieval writers used it of the bending of the body, of turns of phrase, of grammatical inflection and, in music, of a melodic turn or modulation.^[7][8]

English inflection (early 15th century) is from this word; its grammatical sense dates from the 1660s.^[9]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of bodily bearing and of the modification of words.^[2][10]
• c. 300 AD – Chalcidius uses it of the curves of circles.^[11][10]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus uses it of the bend of the Bosporus.^[3][10]
• first half of the 5th century AD – Macrobius uses it as a grammatical term.^[3][10]
• early 15th century – English borrows it as inflection.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The action of bending or curving; a bend, curve.^[2][3][5]
2. Modification, adaptation (of words or speech).^[2]
3. (grammar) Inflection, change of a word's form.^[3][6][7]
4. (Medieval Latin, music) A melodic turn, modulation.^[7]

Related words

• flexio
• English inflection

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 g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ 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 d 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