permutatio

Forms

permūtātiō f (genitive permūtātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin permūtō (“to change completely, exchange”) + -tiō.^[2][1][3] De Vaan lists ⟨permūtāre⟩ among the compounds of mūtō (“to change, exchange”), which, like mūtuus (“borrowed, mutual”), presupposes a noun ⟨*mūto-⟩ “object of change”, from Proto-Italic *moito-.^[4] He gives two possible further sources, Proto-Indo-European *moith2-o- from a root “to exchange”, or Proto-Indo-European *h2moi-to- from another root of the same meaning.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from the Rhetorica ad Herennium and Cicero on,^[5][6] and the Rhetorica defines it as a figure of speech: permutatio est oratio aliud verbis aliud sententia demonstrans, a way of speaking that shows one thing in words and another in meaning.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Its central sense is reciprocal giving and receiving, interchange,^[2] as in Livy's exchange of Roman prisoners for Campanian horsemen^[2][7] and Tacitus' barter of goods.^[8][9] Cicero uses it for the remittance of money by a bill of exchange,^[2][7] of the transposition of words that spoils an orator's well-built arrangement,^[2][7] and of a great upheaval in the state, magna rerum permutatione impendente.^[2][9] It also meant a thorough alteration or change, as of the colour of the face.^[2][7]

The TLL notes that it is frequent above all in the language of the jurists, grammarians and philosophers of the later period.^[5] Ammianus uses it of a change of horses,^[9] and the Vulgate of changes and alternations in the Book of Wisdom.^[8] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means exchange, change or alteration,^[10] and British medieval charters use it for an exchange of lands.^[11]

Timeline

• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it of allegorical speech.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a bill of exchange and of an upheaval in the state.^[2][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of an exchange of prisoners.^[2][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of the barter of goods.^[8][6]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus uses it of a change of horses.^[9][6]
• 1265 – An English record uses it of an exchange of land.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Reciprocal giving and receiving, exchange, interchange; barter of goods.^[2][8]
2. The giving of something in payment or exchange.^[2]
3. The remittance of money by bill of exchange.^[2][7]
4. (rhetoric) Figurative or allegorical language, saying one thing and meaning another.^[2][7]
5. Transposition, switch; reversal, upheaval.^[2][9]
6. A thorough alteration, change.^[2][8]

Related words

• permūtō
• mūtātiō
• commūtātiō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e f g Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
11. ^ 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