locutio

Forms

locūtiō f (genitive locūtiōnis); third declension^[1] Manuscripts also spell it loquūtiō, and the grammarian Antonius Rufus held that it should be written with ⟨q⟩ because it comes from loquī.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin loquor (“to speak”) + -tiō.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found in the Rhetorica ad Herennium, which calls conversation a kind of speech close to everyday talk,^[4][3] and in Cicero, who notes in the Orator (64) that all speaking is oratio.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the act of speaking it came to mean a way of speaking and pronunciation: Cicero praises correct, pure Latin locutio, and Quintilian speaks of right pronunciation.^[3][5] Quintilian and Gellius use it of a phrase or expression.^[4][5] In Ecclesiastical Latin it is a word, expression or phrase.^[6]

Medieval Latin widened it to the power of speech, a language, a story, conversation, negotiations, an assembly and an agreement.^[7] English locution was borrowed from it in the early 15th century.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of speaking and of pronunciation.^[4][3][9]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of a phrase or expression.^[4][9]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius speaks of a store of such locutiones.^[5][9]
• early 15th century – English borrows it as locution.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of speaking, speech.^[4][3]
2. A manner of speaking; pronunciation.^[4][3]
3. A phrase, expression.^[4][5]
4. (Medieval Latin) The power of speech; a language.^[7]
5. (Medieval Latin) A conversation; negotiations.^[7]
6. (Medieval Latin) An assembly; an agreement.^[7]

Related words

• English locution

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de