Etymologically
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necromantia

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [nɛ.krɔ.manˈtiː.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ne.kro.manˈt͡siː.a][1]

Forms

necromantīa f (genitive necromantīae); first declension[1] Also necromantēa.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek νεκρομαντεία (nekromanteía, “necromancy”),[2][5][6] from νεκρός (nekrós, “corpse”) and μαντεία (manteía, “divination”).[6][7]

Later manuscripts spell it with ⟨nicr-⟩ and ⟨nigr-⟩,[5] under the influence of niger (“black”).[5][8] This form lies behind Old Italian gramanzia and Old French nigremance.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in the scholia of Porphyrio and Acro on Horace's fifth epode,[3] which Köbler dates to the 2nd century AD,[6] meaning the calling up of the dead.[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Lactantius and Augustine use it for the evocation of the dead to learn the future.[2][4] The glossaries explain it as divination by the dead, when a soul is called back from the underworld.[5]

In medieval Latin it widened to sorcery and black magic in general,[8] often in the form nigromantia.[8][7] An English court record of 1331 speaks of the arts of nigromancie of people found in a circle invoking evil spirits.[8] English took the word around 1300, through Old French nigromancie, as nygromauncy.[7]

Timeline

  • 2nd century AD – The scholia of Acro on Horace use it.[3][6]
  • c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius uses it for the evocation of the dead.[2][4][6]
  • 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it in the City of God.[2][4][6]
  • 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it in verse.[8][6]
  • c. 1300 – English borrows it, through Old French, as nygromauncy.[7]
  • 1331 – An English court record uses it of the invocation of evil spirits.[8]
  • 1438 – A letter in Poggio's correspondence speaks of the art of necromantia.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Necromancy: divination by calling up the dead.[2][4][10][8]
  2. (Medieval Latin) Sorcery, black magic.[8]

Usage notes

The medieval variant nigromantia, as if from niger “black”,[8][7] is treated by Niermeyer as the same word.[11] Lewis and Short and Gaffiot also cite Necromantea in Pliny the Elder (35.132), of the part of Homer's Odyssey where Ulysses visits the underworld,[2][4] but the TLL takes this as a false reading for necyomantia.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ a b c d e f Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
  9. ^ Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de
  10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  11. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill