Etymologically
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machinatio

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [maː.kʰɪˈnaː.ti.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ma.kiˈnat.t͡si.o][1]

Forms

māchinātiō f (genitive māchinātiōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin māchinor (“to contrive”) + -tiō.[2][3][4] māchinor is from māchina (“machine”), which was borrowed from Ancient Greek μαχανά (mākhanā́), the Doric form of μηχανή (mēkhanḗ).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Cicero,[5] who writes that some animals have been given machinatio quaedam atque sollertia, a power of contrivance and skill.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It meant the art of making contrivances, then a piece of machinery or a mechanism: Cicero speaks of something moved by a mechanism, such as a sphere, and Caesar uses it of an engine of war.[2][3] The TLL finds it in Cicero, Caesar, Sallust, Livy and later prose but not in the poets.[4] The transferred sense, a device or machination, appears in Ulpian, of a scheme to deceive another.[2]

In Medieval Latin it meant a ruse or fraud, and also a bequest.[6] English took machination in the late 15th century, from Old French and directly from Latin.[7]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the power of contrivance and of a mechanism.[2][5]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of an engine of war.[2][5]
  • before 223 AD – Ulpian uses it of a scheme to deceive.[2][5]
  • late 15th century – English borrows it as machination.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The art of making machines or contrivances.[2][3]
  2. A piece of machinery, mechanism, contrivance.[2][3][1]
  3. (military) An engine of war.[2]
  4. A device, artifice; a machination.[2][1]
  5. (Medieval Latin) A ruse, fraud; a bequest.[6]

References

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