narratio

Forms

nārrātiō f (genitive nārrātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin nārrō (“to relate, tell”) + -tiō.^[2][1][3] De Vaan derives the verb from the adjective gnārus (“knowing”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *gnāro- (“knowing”) and Proto-Indo-European *ǵnh₃-ro- (“knowing”); the verb was already Proto-Italic, *gnārāje- (“to make knowing, tell”), as Umbrian naratu (“to speak, recite”) shows.^[3] Varro explained nārrō as making another person “knowing”.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Terence (190–159 BC), where a character says that the beginning of a narration is coming to him.^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was any narrative, story or tale,^[2][7] and in rhetoric the part of a speech that sets out the facts of the case, as defined in the Rhetorica ad Herennium and discussed by Cicero and Quintilian.^[2][7]

Christian Latin kept the sense of a narrative or story.^[8] In medieval law it was the plaintiff's oral statement of claim in court,^[9] and Du Cange records it for a lawsuit itself.^[10] English borrowed it in the early 15th century as narration, partly through Old French.^[11]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of the beginning of a narration.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero writes of the rhetorical narratio and its qualities.^[2][7][6]
• early 15th century – Borrowed into English as narration.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A narrative, story, tale; the act of relating.^[2][7][8]
2. (rhetoric) The part of a speech that sets out the facts of the case.^[2][7]
3. (Medieval Latin, law) A plaintiff's oral statement of claim in court; a lawsuit.^[9][10]

Word family

• narrātiuncula

Related words

• English narration

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ Marcus Terentius Varro, De lingua Latina (text of The Latin Library; book and paragraph numbers as there).
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com