occidentalis

Forms

occidentālis (neuter occidentāle); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin occidēns + -ālis,^[2][1] the noun occidēns meaning “west”.^[1] Köbler refers it further to occidō² (“to fall, set”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short and Gaffiot first cite it from Pliny the Elder in the 1st century AD, who speaks of the western side of the north;^[4][5][3] the TLL counts it only from Gellius on and discusses the Pliny passage separately.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short note that it is post-Augustan.^[4] Gellius has the west wind, ventus occidentalis, and Ammianus Marcellinus a western star.^[4][6] In Late Latin it described the Western provinces and their bishops, as against the East,^[6] and Chalcidius used the neuter plural occidentālia as a noun for the West.^[7] The Vulgate speaks of the western sea.^[4]

In Medieval Latin it marked one of the four quarters of the world, western kingdoms and jurisdictions and the Western church, and as a noun a westerner.^[8] English occidental came from Old French and directly from Latin about 1400.^[9]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder speaks of the western side of the north.^[4][5][3]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius names the west wind ventus occidentalis.^[6][4][3]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus uses it of a star and of western regions.^[4][6][3]
• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome writes of the western provinces.^[6][3]
• c. 1400 – English borrows it as occidental.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or in the west, western.^[2][4][5]
2. Coming from the west, westerly, of winds.^[2][4][6]
3. (Late Latin) Of the Western provinces or the Western church, as against the East.^[6][8]
4. (Late Latin, neuter plural as noun) occidentālia, the West.^[7]
5. (Medieval Latin, as noun) A westerner.^[8]

Related words

• English occidental

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com