punctuatio

Forms

pūnctuātiō f (genitive pūnctuātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin pūnctuō (“to mark with points”) + -tiō.^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Niermeyer records it in the sense of musical notation;^[3] the earliest dated record that Köbler gives, from Latham's word-list of British Medieval Latin, is from about 1344.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Du Cange gathers three medieval uses: an agreement or treaty, in a chronicle on the surrender of a town; writing, said of the pointing of the church hymns in an original manuscript, in John the Deacon's life of Saint Isidore the Farmer; and the pause or modulation made in chanting, in the statutes of the church of San Lorenzo in Rome, which ask for a pause in the middle of each verse “with due punctuation, as it is pointed in the psalter”.^[5] Wiktionary sums up its senses as a marking with points, a writing, and an agreement,^[1] and the Polish medieval dictionary adds the pricking of something in magic.^[6]

English took punctuation in the 1530s, first for the pointing of the psalms for singing.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1344 – Earliest dated record that Köbler gives, from Latham.^[4]
• 1530s – English borrows it as punctuation, for the pointing of the psalms.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) A marking with points; the pointing of a text for reading or singing, punctuation.^[1][2][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) Musical notation; a pause or modulation in chanting.^[3][5]
3. (Medieval Latin) An agreement, treaty.^[5][1]
4. (Medieval Latin) A pricking, as practised in magic.^[6]

Related words

• English punctuation

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl