metathesis

Forms

metathesis f (genitive metathesis, ablative metathesī); third declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek μετάθεσις (metáthesis, “transposition, change”),^[3][4][2] from μετατίθημι (metatíthēmi, “to transpose, change”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the grammarians: the earliest the TLL cites is Sacerdos (3rd century AD), for whom it is a transposition of letters within a word, as in leriquias for reliquias.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In the Latin grammarians it was a kind of metaplasm, the moving of letters to another place in a word;^[2][1] Pompeius stresses that the letters are turned round, not replaced by others.^[2] Isidore of Seville defines it as the transposition of a letter.^[2]

Rhetoricians used it for the transposition of clauses, as in eripis ut perdas, perdis ut eripias (“you snatch in order to destroy, you destroy in order to snatch”), and Isidore also for a figure that sends the judges' minds to present or future things.^[2] In British medieval Latin it kept its grammatical and rhetorical senses and was also a medical term for the shifting of diseased matter from one part of the body to another.^[5] Italian has it as metatesi.^[6]

Timeline

• 3rd century AD – Sacerdos gives leriquias for reliquias as an example.^[2][4]
• c. 310–380 AD – Donatus defines it as the moving of letters to another place.^[2][4]
• second half of the 4th century AD – Diomedes uses it as a grammatical term.^[1][7][4]
• 5th century AD – Consentius discusses it among the metaplasms.^[2][4]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville defines it in the Etymologiae.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (grammar) transposition of letters or syllables within a word.^[1][2][5]
2. (rhetoric) Transposition of clauses or sentences.^[2][5]
3. (rhetoric) A figure that turns the hearers' minds to present or future things.^[2]
4. (Medieval Latin, medicine) The shifting of diseased matter from one part of the body to another.^[5]

Related words

• English metathesis

References

1. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d 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
6. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn