Etymologically
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penetratio

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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