necrosis

Forms

necrōsis f (genitive necrōsis); third declension^[1][2] The manuscripts also spell it with nigr-.^[2] A medieval glossary has nicrosis.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek νέκρωσις (nékrōsis, “killing, deadening”),^[4][1][2] the noun of νεκρόω (nekróō, “to make dead, kill”), from νεκρός (nekrós, “dead”).^[4] Köbler compares Proto-Indo-European *nek̑- (“to perish, disappear; death”).^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Caelius Aurelianus in the 5th century AD,^[4] in his work on chronic diseases, of parts of the body that have died after the untimely use of a remedy: “the Greeks call these necroses”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The TLL treats it as a technical term of Galen's medicine for a part of the body that has died and lost feeling, and records it also in a Latin version of Galen's work addressed to Glaucon.^[2] Lewis & Short, Georges and Gaffiot render it as the act of killing or causing to die.^[1][6][7]

Medieval Latin kept it as a learned word for mortification, and a medieval glossary explains nicrosis simply as “death”.^[3] In 1542 Martin Luther used it of grief, writing after the death of his daughter Magdalena that he and his wife could not bear it “without great mortification” (sine grandi necrosi).^[8] English took the Latinized form in the 1660s for the death of bodily tissue.^[9]

Timeline

• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it of dead parts of the body.^[4][2]
• 1542 – Martin Luther writes of the “great mortification” of his grief.^[8]
• 1660s – English borrows it as necrosis, the death of bodily tissue.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine) The dying of a part of the body; a part that has died and lost feeling, mortification.^[2][3]
2. The act of killing or causing to die.^[1][6][7]
3. (New Latin) A deadening of the feelings, mortification.^[8]

Related words

• English necrosis

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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c 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
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b c Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com