insertio

Forms

īnsertiō f (genitive īnsertiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin īnserō² (“to insert”) + -tiō,^[2][1] and the TLL compares īnsitiō (“grafting”), with which manuscripts confuse it.^[2] Lewis & Short call it post-Classical.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL reads it by conjecture in the grammarian Velius Longus, of the insertion of a letter;^[2] Chalcidius, in his commentary on the Timaeus, uses it of the insertion of a mean between numbers.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the 4th century it was used for grafting: Augustine speaks of the grafting of a wild olive, Macrobius of shoots, and Isidore has it in this sense.^[3] Caelius Aurelianus uses it of the insertion of a surgical hook.^[2]

Medieval Latin kept both grafting and insertion in a text.^[4] English took insertion in the 1590s, from French or directly from Late Latin.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 300 AD – Chalcidius uses it of the insertion of a mean.^[2][6]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of grafting a wild olive.^[3][6]
• first half of the 5th century AD – Macrobius uses it of grafting shoots.^[3][6]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville uses it in the Etymologiae.^[3][6]
• 1590s – English borrows it as insertion.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A putting in, insertion.^[2][3]
2. Grafting; a graft.^[3][4]
3. (Medieval Latin) An insertion in a text.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b 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 d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de