Etymologically
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oppressio

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Forms

oppressiō f (genitive oppressiōnis); third declension[1] It is also written obpressiō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin opprimō (“to press down, overwhelm”) + -tiō.[4][5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Terence.[5][6] In the Adelphoe the slave dealer Sannio complains that Aeschinus wants to carry the girl off from him per oppressionem, by a sudden act of force.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Vitruvius uses it for the physical pressing of one thing on another.[4][2] Cicero uses it of the violent seizure of the senate house by Clodius' men,[4][2] and figuratively of the suppression of liberty and the overthrow of the laws.[4][2] Augustine speaks of people crushed by falling buildings,[7] and in the medical Latin of Caelius Aurelianus it renders the Greek term for catalepsy.[2]

Ecclesiastical Latin used it for oppression, trouble and slavery.[8] Medieval Latin in Britain used it chiefly for oppression and ill-treatment by the abuse of power, and also for stifling or suffocation.[3]

Timeline

  • 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of a sudden act of force.[4][2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the seizure of the senate house and the suppression of liberty.[4][2][6]
  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it for pressing.[4][6]
  • 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of the crushing weight of falling buildings.[7][6]
  • 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it for catalepsy.[2][6]
  • 1447 – A register of Rochester records a case of the smothering of a child.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A pressing against or on something.[4][2]
  2. A violent seizure, overpowering by force.[4][2]
  3. (figurative) Suppression, stifling, overthrow (of liberty, laws).[4][2][7]
  4. The taking of a person by surprise, an act of violence.[4][7]
  5. (Late Latin, medicine) Catalepsy.[2]
  6. (Ecclesiastical and Medieval Latin) Oppression, ill-treatment; trouble, slavery.[8][3]
  7. (Medieval Latin) Stifling, suffocation.[3]

Word family

  • oppressiuncula

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e 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 f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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 c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson