percussio

Forms

percussiō f (genitive percussiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin percutiō (“to strike, beat”) + -tiō.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero (81–43 BC) is the first to use it, of beatings of the breast, thighs and head.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It meant the action of striking or beating,^[2][4] and Cicero also uses it in music and rhetoric for a beat that marks the rhythm.^[2][4] In prose it is found in Cicero, Quintilian and Gellius, and more than two hundred times in Gregory the Great, mostly in his Moralia.^[5]

Medieval Latin used it for a punishment and for a plague or disaster,^[6] and in monastic rules for a penalty of strokes, as in the Penitential of Columbanus.^[7] DMLBS also records it for the striking of metal or coin, for a thunderbolt and for lancing in medicine.^[8] English borrowed it in the early 15th century as percussion, meaning a blow.^[9]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of beating the breast and head, and of the beats of a rhythm.^[2][3]
• early 15th century – Borrowed into English as percussion “a blow”.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A beating, striking, blow.^[2][4]
2. (music and rhetoric) A beat marking the rhythm; time.^[2][4][10]
3. (Medieval Latin) Chastisement, punishment; in monasteries, a penalty of strokes.^[6][7]
4. (Medieval Latin) A plague, disaster.^[6]

Word family

• percussionalis

Related words

• English percussion

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson