maturatio

Forms

mātūrātiō f (genitive mātūrātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin mātūrō (“to ripen; to hasten”), formed with the suffix -tiō.^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its only Classical record is in the Rhetorica ad Herennium, which Köbler dates to the third quarter of the 1st century BC: it lists, among the means of cunning, acting before the proper time.^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it meant doing something before its time, haste or anticipation.^[2][5][6]

The sense of ripening, from the other meaning of mātūrō, appears in medieval Latin: the Salernitan questions treat it as a kind of digestion, and Gerald of Wales writes of a field found ripe before the common time of ripening.^[7][8] Ecclesiastical Latin has both hastening and growth or maturation,^[9] and in Hungary it could mean coming of age.^[10] English borrowed it in the early 15th century for the coming to a head of a boil; the sense of ripening or coming to maturity followed in the 1610s.^[11]

Timeline

• 3rd quarter of the 1st century BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it of acting before the proper time.^[2][3][4]
• early 15th century – Borrowed into English as maturation.^[11]
• 1465 – A Hungarian record uses it of children coming of age.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Doing something before the proper time, anticipation; haste.^[2][5][6]
2. (Medieval Latin) Ripening, maturation, of fruit or of matter in the body.^[7][8][9]
3. (Medieval Latin) Coming of age.^[10]

Related words

• mātūrō
• mātūrus
• English maturation

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Novum Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis ab anno DCCC usque ad annum MCC (1957–), Copenhagen / Geneva / Paris: Union Académique Internationale; IRHT
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ a b c Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com