Etymologically
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periodicus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 18:53. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɛ.riˈɔ.dɪ.kʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [pe.riˈɔː.di.kus][1]

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]

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