occasus

Forms

occāsus m (genitive occāsūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from occidō (“to fall down, set”) with the noun suffix -tus.^[2][3][4] The verb is ob- and cadō (“to fall”), which de Vaan derives from Proto-Italic *kad-e/o- and perhaps Proto-Indo-European *(ḱe-)ḱh₂d- (“to fall”), cognate with Sanskrit शद् (śad-, “to fall”).^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Twelve Tables say “let sunset be the last time” of the court day;^[2][6] Ennius uses it of an opportunity: “this chance was given”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Ennius it is an opportunity or chance.^[2] Usually with sōlis it is the setting of the sun, often as a mark of time, as in the Twelve Tables, and the setting of other heavenly bodies, as in Cicero.^[2][3][1] It is the quarter where the sun sets, the west, as Caesar's part of Gaul that faces between the west and the north, and Livy's summer sunset; in the plural it is the western world, as in Lucan.^[2][3][1] The Aetna uses it of the sinking of a stream.^[2]

It is downfall, decline or ruin, as Cicero's warning that the fall of the whole city and empire was near, and death or end, as his “after the death of Lucius Aelius”.^[2][3]

Church Latin glosses it “setting, falling, setting of the sun”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 450 BC – The Twelve Tables of sunset.^[2][6]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius of an opportunity.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the setting of stars and of the fall of the state.^[2][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of the west.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. An opportunity, chance.^[2]
2. The setting (of the sun, stars); sunset.^[2][3][1][7]
3. The west;^[2][3][1] (plural) the western world.^[2]
4. The sinking (of a stream).^[2]
5. Downfall, ruin; death, end.^[2][3][1]

Word family

• occāsiō

Related words

• occidō
• cadō
• occidēns
• ortus

Usage notes

Occāsus is also the perfect participle of occidō, “fallen, set”.^[3][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson