Etymologically
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irruptio

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Forms

irruptiō f (genitive irruptiōnis); third declension[1] It is also written inruptiō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin irrumpō (“to burst in”) + -tiō.[2][3][1] That verb is a compound of in- (“into”) and rumpō (“to break, burst”),[4] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *ru-n-p- and Proto-Indo-European *Hru-n-p- (“to break”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler record it first in Plautus,[5][6] in the prologue of the Poenulus: in popīnam, pedisequī, irruptiōnem facite, “attendants, make a raid on the cookshop”.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Its general sense is a bursting in, used of wild beasts by Pliny the Younger and of natural forces by Seneca, who writes that water will burst in from every side.[2][8] As a military term it means an assault on a position or an incursion into enemy land: Cicero speaks of the fear of enemy forces nearby even if no incursion has been made, Livy of soldiers who could not withstand the first assault, and Tacitus of a raid into the land of the Chatti.[2][8] Jerome and Augustine still use it of invasions.[8]

Medieval British writers use it of floods, assaults and invasions; in 1358 a monastery complains of the sudden inrush of water from its fishponds.[9] English took it as irruption in the 1570s, from French or directly from Latin.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a raid on a cookshop.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a military incursion.[2][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of an assault.[2][6]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of water bursting in.[2][6]
  • 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of the invasion of the Gauls.[8][6]
  • 1358 – A British source uses it of a flood.[9]
  • 1570s – English borrows it as irruption.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A bursting in, violent or forcible entry.[2][7]
  2. Of natural forces, an inrush, a sudden flood.[2][8][9]
  3. (military) An assault on a position; an incursion, raid, invasion.[2][7][9]

References

  1. ^ a b 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 de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  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 c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  9. ^ a b c d 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