iniectio

Forms

iniectiō f (genitive iniectiōnis); third declension^[1] Manuscripts of the Latin Oribasius often have enectio.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin iniciō (“to throw in or on”) + -tiō.^[3][1] The verb is made from in- and iaciō (“to throw”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record is the phrase manūs iniectiō in the Twelve Tables, as quoted by Gellius: after thirty days' grace for a confessed debt, post deinde manūs iniectiō estō “after that let there be a laying on of the hand”.^[5][2][6]

Semantic evolution

In Roman law manūs iniectiō, the laying on of the hand, was the act by which a person seized someone on whom he had a legal claim, or property he claimed as his own, without a judge's decision.^[3][5] Quintilian cites a law giving a patron this right over his freedman, and Seneca speaks of true goods on which no hand can be laid.^[5] Outside this phrase the TLL finds the word only from Tertullian and the Old Latin Bible on, and never in poetry.^[2]

Medical writers used it of an injection or enema, as Caelius Aurelianus and the veterinary writer Vegetius do.^[5][2] Tertullian used it figuratively of the prompting of Satan and of an objection raised in argument.^[5] Medieval Latin made manuum iniectiō the laying of violent hands on a person, above all on a cleric, which incurred excommunication;^[7][8] it also kept the medical injection and the putting of an idea into someone's mind.^[8] English injection comes from it, directly or through Old French, in the early 15th century.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 450 BC – The Twelve Tables prescribe manūs iniectiō against a judgment debtor.^[5][2][6]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca speaks of goods on which no hand can be laid.^[5][6]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian cites a patron's right of manūs iniectiō over his freedman.^[5][6]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of the prompting of Satan.^[5][6]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it of an injection.^[5][6]
• early 15th century – English borrows injection.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law) manūs iniectiō: the laying on of the hand, by which a person seized someone or something he had a claim on.^[3][5]
2. A throwing in;^[5][2][1] (medicine) an injection, enema.^[5][2][1]
3. (Late Latin) A suggestion, instigation; an objection.^[5][1]
4. (Medieval Latin) manuum iniectiō: a violent assault on a person.^[7][8]

Word family

• iniectionale

Related words

• iniectō
• English injection

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
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