Etymologically
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iniectio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪnˈjɛk.ti.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [inˈjɛk.t͡si.o][1]

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

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