periodicus

Forms

periodicus (feminine periodica, neuter periodicum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek περιοδικός (periodikós, “periodic”),^[1][2][3] an adjective formed on περίοδος (períodos, “a going round, cycle”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pliny the Elder has it first, of fevers that return at set intervals,^[5][2][6] and the TLL notes that, except in Martianus Capella, it is a word of the medical writers.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In medicine it described diseases, above all fevers, that come back at regular intervals;^[5][2] used as a noun, it named a patient with such a disease.^[5] Caelius Aurelianus speaks of periodic types of fever.^[3][5] Martianus Capella applied it in rhetoric to the rounded structure of a sentence, the period.^[5]

Ecclesiastical Latin uses it for anything that recurs at regular intervals, and as a neuter noun for a periodical publication.^[7] Italian periodico comes from it.^[8]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder speaks of periodic fevers.^[5][2][4]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it of the types of fever.^[3][5][4]
• 5th century AD – Martianus Capella uses it of the periodic style of speech.^[5][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (medicine) Intermittent, returning at set times (of a disease or fever).^[2][5][3]
2. (rhetoric) Built in periods, of the structure of a sentence.^[5]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Periodical, happening at regular intervals.^[7]

Noun

1. (medicine) A person suffering from an intermittent disease.^[5]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin, neuter) A periodical publication.^[7]

Related words

• periodus
• English periodic

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier