penetratio

Forms

penetrātiō f (genitive penetrātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin penetrō (“to penetrate”) + -tiō.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Apuleius (c. 125–175 AD),^[2][5] in an image in the Florida: arguments that cling to one another like thorns, with equal points on both sides and a like piercing (simili penetratione).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it post-classical.^[6] Augustine uses it of light cutting through the Manichaean land of darkness, and the medical writer Caelius Aurelianus of a gentle cautery and of the insertion of a surgical instrument.^[3] In one of his sermons Augustine also uses it of the mind: to God belongs glory, to men consideration and wonder, but no full insight into his ways.^[3][7]

Medieval scholastic Latin used it for the passing of one body into another, as when wine and water are mixed.^[8] English borrowed it in the early 15th century, meaning a piercing wound; the sense “insight” followed about 1600.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of piercing.^[2][3][5]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it of light passing through darkness and of insight.^[3][7][5]
• early 15th century – Borrowed into English as penetration, a piercing wound.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The action of piercing; penetration.^[2][6]
2. (Late Latin) A passing into or through something, as of light or of a surgical instrument.^[3]
3. (Late Latin) Full insight (into the ways of God).^[3][7]
4. (Medieval Latin) The passing of one body into another, permeation.^[8]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b 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