processio

Forms

prōcessiō f (genitive prōcessiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin prōcēdō + -tiō, a noun of action from the verb meaning “to go forward”.^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short, Georges and Gaffiot cite it first from Cicero's speech on Pompey's command, for a military advance,^[3][4][5] but the TLL treats that reading as a false variant for prōgressiō and finds the word only from Tertullian (c. 160–220 AD), the Old Latin Bible and Donatus on.^[2][6] Tertullian uses it of the modest bearing of people going out in public.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It meant the act of going forward or out: the appearance of actors on the stage in Donatus, the marches of soldiers in Vegetius, and the formal entrance of a consul on his office or the public appearance of an emperor.^[2][3][4] In the Church it named the going of the faithful or the clergy to the services, and then the service itself and the religious procession,^[2][7] which Sidonius already mentions.^[3][4]

Medieval Latin added the senses pomp, divine service or religious meeting, funeral procession and legal proceedings;^[7] Du Cange cites Gregory the Great for the sense “lawsuit”.^[8] English took the word over in late Old English for a religious procession.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of going out in public.^[2][6]
• c. 310–380 AD – Donatus uses it of an actor's entrance on the stage.^[2][6]
• c. 400 AD – Vegetius speaks of military exercises and marches.^[2][3][6]
• c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius uses it of a religious procession.^[3][4][6]
• 540–604 – Gregory the Great uses it for lawsuits.^[8][6]
• late Old English – English takes it over as procession.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A going forward, an advance.^[3][2]
2. A formal going out in public, such as a consul's entrance on office or an emperor's appearance.^[3][4]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A religious procession.^[4][7][10]
4. (Medieval Latin) Pomp, display.^[7]
5. (Medieval Latin) A divine service, a meeting of the faithful.^[7][8]
6. (Medieval Latin) A funeral procession.^[7]
7. (Medieval Latin) Legal proceedings, a lawsuit.^[7][8]

Related words

• English procession

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
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 Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c d du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson