lexis

Forms

lexis f (genitive lexis or lexeōs or lexios); third declension^[1] It keeps Greek endings: genitive lexeos, accusative lexin, nominative and accusative plural lexis or lexeis; a Latin accusative plural lexes also occurs.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek λέξις (léxis, “speech, word”),^[3][5][6][1] from λέγω (légō, “to speak”),^[1] which Köbler traces to Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Lucilius,^[3][6] in a line that Cicero quotes in On the Orator: quam lepide lexeis compostae!, “how neatly the words are put together!”^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

It stayed a Greek technical term of style and grammar.^[2] Varro, in his Menippean satires, defines a poem as lexis enrhythmos, “speech in rhythm”;^[2][7] Quintilian contrasts the figures of speech, schemata lexeos, with the figures of thought;^[2] and the late grammarians use it for a word or expression.^[2][8]

In medieval Latin it still meant a word or expression; a 9th-century letter uses the genitive lexeos,^[9] and in British sources it also named dialectic, and figura lexeos a figure of speech.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses the plural lexeis.^[3][4][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro defines a poem as lexis enrhythmos.^[2][7][6]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian writes of the schemata lexeos.^[2][6]
• c. 362 AD – Charisius uses the genitive lexeos.^[8][11][6]
• 862–875 – A letter uses the genitive lexeos.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A word, an expression.^[3][2][4]
2. Speech, diction, a combination of words.^[3][2]
3. (Medieval Latin) Dialectic.^[10]

Usage notes

A separate word lēxis “pause, cessation”, from Ancient Greek λῆξις (lêxis), is found only in glossaries.^[2][6]

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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b Novum Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis ab anno DCCC usque ad annum MCC (1957–), Copenhagen / Geneva / Paris: Union Académique Internationale; IRHT
10. ^ a b 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
11. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.