regressio

Forms

regressiō f (genitive regressiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin regredior (“to go back”) + -tiō, from the stem of its past participle ⟨regress-⟩.^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Quintilian (c. 35–96 AD) is the first to have it, as the Latin name of a figure of repetition: ἐπάνοδος dicitur Graece, nostri regressionem vocant (“it is called epanodos in Greek, our writers call it regressio”).^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

The rhetorical term recurs in the figures of Pseudo-Julius Rufinianus and in Isidore of Seville, who also equates it with epanodos.^[3] The TLL notes that it is used only in the singular.^[3]

In the general sense of a going back it appears in Fronto, of a ruler's return that was neither safe nor bloodless, and in Apuleius, of a hastened return.^[5][2] Augustine speaks of a return from temporal things to eternal ones.^[5] English regression comes from it (early 15th century).^[6]

Timeline

• c. 35–96 AD – Quintilian gives it as the Latin name of epanodos.^[2][3][4]
• 100–170 AD – Fronto uses it of a return.^[5][4]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius speaks of a hastened return.^[2][4]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine writes of a return from temporal to eternal things.^[5][4]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville equates it with epanodos.^[3][4]
• early 15th century – English borrows it as regression.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A going back, return;^[2][7] (military) a withdrawal, retreat.^[2][7]
2. (rhetoric) A figure of repetition in which terms already stated are taken up again and distinguished, Greek ἐπάνοδος (epánodos).^[2][3]

Related words

• English regression

Usage notes

In Cicero's Philippics 1.1 it occurs only as a variant reading, quoted by Nonius; the manuscripts of Cicero have reversionis.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press