Etymologically
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intermissio

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Forms

intermissiō f (genitive intermissiōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin intermittō (“to leave off, interrupt”) + -tiō.[2][3] intermittō is a compound of inter (“between”) and mittō (“to let go, send”).[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has it first,[5] of a break from work in the forum and in the phrase sine ulla intermissione, “without any break”.[6]

Semantic evolution

It is a break in something continuous, a pause, and in the courts an adjournment.[2] Cicero, in the Hortensius, has “without the least interval of time”.[2] Celsus uses it, in the plural, of the intermissions of a fever and of the gaps in a spreading skin disease.[2][3] The jurist Ulpian has a servitude divided by an interval of time.[2] Church Latin keeps “ceasing, intermission”.[7] English intermission comes from it, first in the early 15th century.[4]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, “without any break”.[6][2][5]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus, of the intermissions of a fever.[2][5]
  • before 223 AD – Ulpian, of an interval of time.[2][5]
  • early 15th century – English intermission.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A break, interruption, pause, intermission; an adjournment.[2][6][1][7]
  2. (medicine) The intermission of a fever; a lucid interval.[2]
  3. An interval of time.[2]
  4. A gap in space.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson