Etymologically
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lexis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɫɛk.sɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈlɛk.sis][1]

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.