occursus

Forms

occursus m (genitive occursūs); fourth declension^[1] Manuscripts of the Vulgate and later texts also spell it ocursus.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin occurrō (“to run to meet”) + -tus, like accursus and recursus.^[3][2] occurrō is a compound of ob- and currō (“to run”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *korse/o- (“to run”) and Proto-Indo-European *kr̥s-e/o- (“to run”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Ovid;^[5][6] Livy also has it, of streets where no one was met.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

It is a coming face to face, a meeting: Velleius tells how Clodius was killed in a brawl that started when he met Milo.^[3] It can be a meeting meant to stop someone, as the guards' intervention in Curtius, and in Seneca a conjunction of heavenly bodies.^[3] Livy uses it of an enemy's charge, Pliny the Elder of an attack of illness, and Ovid of a wheel shattered against a stump in its path.^[3] Lewis & Short note that neither Cicero nor Caesar uses it.^[6] Medieval texts use it of a visit or arrival, a due paid by those under a lord's protection, and mooring dues.^[7]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a wheel striking a stump.^[3][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of an enemy's charge.^[3][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of an attack of illness.^[3][5]
• Middle Ages – a due owed to a protector; mooring dues.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A meeting, encounter; an intervention;^[3][6][8][1] (astronomy) a conjunction.^[3][6][8][1]
2. An attack, charge, onset; an attack of illness.^[3]
3. A meeting that bars the way, an obstacle.^[3]
4. (Medieval Latin) A visit, arrival.^[7]
5. (Medieval Latin) A due paid to a protector; mooring dues.^[7]

Related words

• occurrō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson