Etymologically
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perpessio

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Forms

perpessiō f (genitive perpessiōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin perpetior (“to endure to the end”) + -tiō,[2][1][3] from the participle ⟨perpessus⟩.[3] The verb is a compound of per- and patior (“to suffer”), whose origin de Vaan considers uncertain.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It appears first in the Rhetorica ad Herennium,[3][5] which defines fortitude as the endurance of toil with a view to advantage.[3]

Semantic evolution

The TLL finds it in Cicero, Seneca and the Rhetorica ad Herennium, then again from Lactantius on, above all in philosophical and theological writing.[3] Cicero defines patience as the willing and lasting endurance of hard things,[6][3] and speaks of the endurance of labours and pains;[6] Seneca makes patience, endurance and tolerance branches of fortitude.[6][7] Lactantius calls the second death the endurance of eternal pain.[3]

Marius Victorinus, Augustine and Cassiodorus repeated Cicero's definitions,[3] and British medieval authors still quoted his definition of fortitude.[8]

Timeline

  • 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it in a definition of fortitude.[3][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in definitions of patience and fortitude.[6][3][5]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca names it among the branches of fortitude.[6][7][5]
  • c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius speaks of the endurance of eternal pain.[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Endurance of suffering or toil to the end, patience.[2][6][7]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ 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