logicus

Forms

logicus (feminine logica, neuter logicum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek λογικός (logikós, “of speech, of reason”),^[1][2] from λόγος (lógos, “word, speech, reason”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero uses it in Greek form for the part of philosophy concerned with inquiry and argument, which he says is called logicē,^[3] and in the neuter plural logica for logic.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Cicero still writes it as a Greek word,^[3] and later writers use it for logic, the rational part of philosophy beside physics and ethics: Jerome, Rufinus, Augustine and Boethius.^[3] It also meant “rational, reasonable”: Martianus Capella divides things into the rational and the irrational (logica and aloga),^[4] Isidore names a school of physicians logica,^[4] and Caelius Aurelianus calls the rational physicians logici.^[4] The neuter singular logicum is logic in Sidonius.^[4]

Ecclesiastical Latin uses it for “logical, reasonable”.^[5] It survives in French logique and Catalan lògic.^[1]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero names logic logicē and logica.^[3][4][2]
• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome writes of the philosophers dividing their teaching into physics, ethics and logic.^[3][2]
• 5th century AD – Martianus Capella uses it for “rational”.^[4][2]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus calls the rational physicians logici.^[4][2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to logic or dialectic;^[3][4] (feminine or neuter plural as noun) logic.^[3][4]
2. Rational, reasonable.^[4][5]
3. (masculine plural as noun) The rational school of physicians.^[4]

Related words

• logica

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson