iunctura

Forms

iūnctūra f (genitive iūnctūrae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin iungō (“to join”) + -ūra.^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces iungō to Proto-Italic *jung-e/o- and the nasal present Proto-Indo-European *(H)iunégti (“to yoke”), comparing Sanskrit युनज्मि (yunájmi, “I yoke”) and Ancient Greek ζεύγνυμι (zeúgnumi).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Lucretius.^[5] Caesar uses it of the distance between joined beams.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the point where one part is attached to another, a joint, as in walls of squared stone with long joints in Vitruvius.^[2][6] Of the body it is a joint: Ovid has the joints of the knees grow stiff.^[2][6] Columella uses it of the yoking of oxen.^[6] Abstractly it is a putting together or combination: Seneca writes of a ship or a house made of different parts joined into one.^[2] In style it is the setting of words side by side: Horace says a familiar word can be made new by a clever iūnctūra, and Quintilian warns against a junction of words that sounds ugly.^[2] Ovid uses it of the bond of kinship and of a web binding red toes.^[2] Lewis & Short call it poetic and post-Augustan.^[6] Church Latin glosses it joint,^[7] and in Medieval Latin it is an encounter or skirmish.^[8] English borrowed juncture and, through Old French, jointure in the late 14th century.^[3]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses the word.^[5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of joined beams.^[2][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of a clever setting of words.^[2][5]
• late 14th century – English juncture and jointure.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A joint, the point where parts are joined; a joint of the body.^[2][6][1][7]
2. A joining, combination; the yoking of oxen.^[2][6][1]
3. The setting of words together, collocation.^[2]
4. A bond, connecting link; an association of persons.^[2][1]
5. (Medieval Latin) An encounter, skirmish.^[8]

Related words

• iungō
• English juncture
• English jointure

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f 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
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill