praecisio

Forms

praecīsiō f (genitive praecīsiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin praecīdō (“to cut off in front”) + -tiō, built on ⟨praecīs-⟩, the stem of the participle praecīsus.^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Rhetorica ad Herennium (86/82 BC)^[4] uses it for the figure of breaking off a sentence before it is finished, the Greek aposiopesis.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Vitruvius uses it for the cut ends of beams,^[2][5] and Apuleius for the act of cutting off a part of the body.^[2][6] The TLL notes that it is rare until Augustine, who uses it often;^[3] he also applies it to a schism, a cutting off from the Church.^[6] The Vulgate's Jeremiah has it in a sense L&S renders as “overreaching”.^[5]

In Medieval Latin it meant cutting or incision, removal by cutting off, also excommunication, and in logic abstraction, the mental separation of an idea.^[7] English precision (1630s) first meant this mental cutting off, abstraction.^[8]

Timeline

• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium names the figure of breaking off praecisio.^[2][4]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it for the cut ends of beams.^[2][4]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it for cutting off a part of the body.^[2][4]
• 1166 – A British letter threatens a sentence of praecisio, excommunication.^[7]
• 1630s – English borrows it as precision.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cutting off, amputation.^[2][5]
2. (rhetoric) A breaking off in mid-sentence, aposiopesis.^[2][5]
3. The cut end (of a beam).^[2][6]
4. (Late Latin) A schism.^[6]
5. (Medieval Latin) Excommunication.^[7]
6. (Medieval Latin, logic) Abstraction, the mental separation of an idea.^[7]

Related words

• English precision

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com