reductus

Forms

reductus (feminine reducta, neuter reductum, comparative reductior); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin redūcō (“to lead back, draw back”): its perfect passive participle, used as an adjective.^[1][2] That verb is a compound of re- and dūcō (“to lead”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *deuk-e/o- (“to draw”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero pairs producta and reducta to render two Stoic terms, things to be preferred and things to be passed over.^[2] As an adjective of place it appears in Virgil,^[4] who has a wave split itself into deep-set bays: in sinus scindit sese unda reductos.^[1][2]

Semantic evolution

Of places it means drawn back, deep-set, and so retired or remote: Virgil and Horace both speak of a secluded valley.^[1][2] Horace uses it figuratively when he calls virtue a mean between vices, drawn back from either extreme.^[2] In Quintilian it is a painter's term for parts of a picture set back and made less prominent.^[1][2]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the neuter plural for Stoic things to be passed over.^[2][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a deep-set bay and a secluded valley.^[1][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of virtue removed from both extremes.^[2][4]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of parts set back in a painting.^[1][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of a valley or inlet) Receding deeply, set back; secluded, remote.^[1][2]
2. (painting) Set back, less prominent.^[1][2]
3. (figurative) Drawn back, removed (from an extreme).^[2]
4. (neuter plural as a noun, philosophy) Things to be passed over, rendering a Stoic term.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de