Etymologically
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plethora

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Pronunciation

  • Ecclesiastical: [pleˈtɔː.ra][1]

Forms

plēthōra f (genitive plēthōrae); first declension[1] Later manuscripts often have pletura, perhaps by association with plēre “to fill”;[2] plectora appears in a manuscript of Chiron.[2] Medieval spellings include plectora, plectoria and plectorea.[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek πληθώρα (plēthṓra, “fullness, satiety”),[1][2][3] from πλήθω (plḗthō, “to be full”).[1][4] Köbler traces it further to Proto-Indo-European *pelh₁- (“to fill”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the veterinary writer Pelagonius, as a medical term for a morbid excess of the body's fluids: ne nimia plethora adferat necem, “lest too great a fullness bring death”.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Chiron speaks of a draught animal fevered by it, and the Mulomedicina of Vegetius uses it too; a medical work ascribed to Soranus explains it as an abundance or repletion of the humours, and the Latin Oribasius uses it of an excess of undigested humours.[2] Glosses render it with plenitudo, “fullness”.[2]

Medieval physicians kept it for a repletion of blood or another humour, often spelled plectora or plectoria.[3] English took it over as a medical word in the 1540s, and the figurative sense “overfullness” is recorded by 1700.[5]

Timeline

  • 360 AD – Pelagonius uses it for a dangerous excess of humours.[2][4]
  • 4th century AD – Chiron speaks of a fever caused by it.[2][4]
  • c. 400 AD – Vegetius uses it in his work on veterinary medicine.[2][4]
  • 1540s – English borrows it as a medical word.[5]
  • by 1700 – English uses it figuratively for overfullness.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (medicine) An excess of blood or other humours in the body, plethora.[2][3]
  2. Fullness.[2]

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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com