occidio

Forms

occīdiō f (genitive occīdiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin occīdō¹ (“to kill”) + -iō (“noun suffix”).^[2][1][3] The TLL refers it to the verb but suggests that it may originally have been formed beside excidiō, excidium and discidium, and compares occīdium.^[4] The verb is ob- with caedō (“to cut, kill”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *kaid-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *keh2id- (“to cut, hew”).^[5]

The grammarian Placidus remarks that it is feminine and that it is a better word than occīsiō, since one says occīdī (“to be killed”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has it first,^[6] in the phrase occidione occidere, “to cut down to the last man”, said of a force of cavalry wiped out (Ad familiares 15.4.7) and in a motion in the Philippics (14.36).^[7][4] The TLL thinks the phrase arose in military language.^[4]

Semantic evolution

L&S note that the word is rare before the Augustan period.^[7] Livy uses the set phrase often and also the noun alone: the dictator and the consul beg that victory should not be sought in total slaughter (3.28.9).^[7][4] Tacitus has occidione occumbere, “to perish to a man”, and occidioni dari, “to be given over to destruction”.^[7][8]

Columella extends it to animals and plants: bees should not be destroyed root and branch, and a whole kind of vine should not be allowed to die out.^[7][4] Later writers kept the military phrase, as in Justin's omnes occidione caesi, “all were cut down”.^[7][8] The word has no plural.^[4]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero writes of cavalry occidione occisus, wiped out.^[7][4][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses the phrase repeatedly and the noun on its own.^[4][6]
• 1st century AD – Columella applies it to bees, seeds and flocks.^[4][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus has occidione occumbere and occidioni dari.^[7][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Wholesale slaughter, massacre, extermination.^[2][7]
2. occidione occidere (also caedere): to cut down utterly, annihilate.^[7][8]
3. Total destruction of animals or plants.^[7][9]

Usage notes

L&S group it with the near-synonyms clades, strages and caedes;^[7] the TLL compares internecio.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.