Etymologically
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parenthesis

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Forms

părenthĕsis f (genitive părenthĕsis); third declension[1][2] The TLL also records the Greek genitive parentheseos and the spelling parentesis.[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek παρένθεσις (parénthesis, “insertion”),[2][1][4][3] literally a putting in beside, from παρα- (para-, “beside”) and ἐν (en, “in”) and a form of the verb for to put.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Quintilian and Rutilius Lupus still write it as a Greek word, in Greek letters; as a Latin word it appears from Porphyrio (second half of the 2nd century AD)[4] and Sacerdos on, only in the writers on rhetoric and grammar.[3]

Semantic evolution

In rhetoric it was the figure in which a sentence foreign to the context is put inside another, rendered in Latin as interpositio;[3][2][6] Servius uses it in his commentary on Virgil.[6][3] In grammar it meant the insertion of a letter or syllable into a word, what is now called epenthesis, a sense found in Charisius.[2][1][6]

Bede defines it as a statement inserted into a divided sentence,[7] and medieval writers used the phrase per parenthesin for something said in parenthesis.[7] English parenthesis, from French or directly from Medieval Latin, dates from the 1540s.[5]

Timeline

  • 2nd half of the 2nd century AD – Porphyrio uses the word in Latin, in his commentary on Horace.[3][4]
  • 3rd century AD – Sacerdos uses it as a term of rhetoric.[6][4]
  • c. 362 AD – Charisius uses it for the insertion of a letter or syllable.[2][4]
  • c. 400 AD – Servius names the figure in his commentary on the Aeneid.[3][6][4]
  • first third of the 8th century AD – Bede defines it in his treatise on figures of speech.[2][7][4]
  • 1540s – English borrows it as parenthesis.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (rhetoric) A parenthesis, a statement inserted into a sentence to which it does not belong.[3][2][1][7]
  2. (grammar) Epenthesis, the insertion of a letter or syllable into a word.[2][1][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d 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