lectio

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈɫeːk.ti.oː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈlɛk.t͡si.o]^[1]

Forms

lēctiō f (genitive lēctiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from legō “to gather, choose, read” with the suffix -tiō, as Varro and Servius already note.^[2][1][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL dates it from the Rhetorica ad Herennium, Varro, Cicero, Nepos and Livy.^[3] Köbler dates the Rhetorica 86/82 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Columella it meant gathering, of stones, which Lewis and Short call post-Augustan and rare.^[2][6] In Cicero it meant choosing, selection, especially lēctiō senātūs the revision of the Senate's roll, and a reading, perusal.^[2][7] In Quintilian it meant what is read, a passage, and in the plural readings.^[2] Isidore says a lēctiō is so called because it is not sung, like a psalm, but only read.^[8]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant a lesson, reading, the Epistle, a lecture, a class.^[9] Medieval Latin used it for the wording or version of a text, an interpretation, and a treatise.^[10] It survives in French leçon and Portuguese lição, and Old French leçon gave English lesson in the early 13th century, first a reading from the Bible; English lection came in the 1530s.^[1][4]

Timeline

• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of reading and of the Senate's roll.^[2][5]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of gathering stones.^[2][5]
• early 13th century – English lesson is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Gathering.^[2]
2. Selection, lēctiō senātūs, the revision of the Senate's roll.^[2]
3. A reading.^[2]
4. Reading matter; a passage.^[2]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A lesson; a lecture.^[9]
6. (Medieval Latin) A version of a text.^[10]

Word family

• lēctiuncula
• lēctiōnārium

Related words

• legō
• lēctor
• English lesson
• English lection
• English lecture

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c 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. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill