mutilatio

Forms

mutilātiō f (genitive mutilātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin mutilō (“to cut off, maim”) + -tiō;^[2][1] the verb comes from mutilus (“maimed”).^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first author the TLL cites is the grammarian Marius Victorinus, of the first half of the 4th century AD,^[2][3] who uses it of the truncation of verses: a line may be complete, without mutilation of the metre.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Besides the shortening of verses and words, as in Servius,^[2] it meant the maiming of bodies: the Manichaean Faustus, quoted by Augustine, calls circumcision a mutilation by which God knows his Jews,^[2][5] and Cassiodorus writes of gout shrinking bodies that no mutilation has cut short.^[2][6] Glossaries render it with Greek ἀκρωτηριασμός (akrōtēriasmós).^[7] It is also an Ecclesiastical Latin word for maiming,^[8] and it was borrowed into English in the 1520s, as a term of Scots law for disabling a limb, both from French and directly from Late Latin.^[4]

Timeline

• first half of the 4th century AD – Marius Victorinus uses it of the truncation of verses.^[2][3]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine quotes Faustus calling circumcision a mutilation.^[2][3]
• c. 400 AD – Servius uses it in his commentary on the Aeneid.^[2][3]
• c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus uses it of the maiming of bodies.^[2][3]
• 1520s – Borrowed into English as mutilation, in Scots law.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) The truncation of verses or words.^[2]
2. (Late Latin) A maiming, mutilation of the body.^[9][2][6]

Related words

• mutilus
• mutilo

Usage notes

Georges notes that a passage of Celsus (7.9) once read with mutilatio is now printed, following all the manuscripts, with mutatione.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press