praecedentia

Forms

praecēdentia f (genitive praecēdentiae); first declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin praecēdō (“to go before”).^[3][1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Cassiodorus' Institutiones (2.7.2), in the part on astronomy: praecedentia vel antegradatio stellarum is the forward motion of a star, which the Greeks call προποδισμός (propodismós), as opposed to its backward motion.^[3][1]

Semantic evolution

Gaffiot cites Isidore of Seville for the astronomical sense, which he renders as precession.^[2] Ecclesiastical Latin used the word for precedence,^[5] and in the medieval Latin of Poland it meant precedence, priority or the right to go first, as in Jan Długosz's history.^[6] The English word precedence is partly from Medieval Latin praecedentia.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus uses it for the forward motion of the stars.^[3][4]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville uses it in the Etymologies.^[2][4]
• late 15th century – English borrows precedence, partly from Medieval Latin praecedentia.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (astronomy) The forward motion of a star; precession.^[3][1][2]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin, Medieval Latin) Precedence, priority, the right to go first.^[5][6]

Related words

• English precedence

References

1. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
2. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com