replicatio

Forms

replicātiō f (genitive replicātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin replicō (“to fold back, unroll”) + -tiō.^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero has it once, in De natura deorum, of a contrary rotation by which a god would govern the motion of the world (ut replicatione quadam mundi motum regat), apparently translating Greek ἀνείλιξις (aneílixis).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

After Cicero the TLL finds it in an inscription of AD 158 and then from the jurist Julian on.^[3] In law it was the plaintiff's reply to the defendant's exceptio,^[2][4] and as such it passed into Greek as ῥεπλικατίον in Theophilus' paraphrase of Justinian's Institutes.^[3] Arnobius uses it for untying, of the goddess Cinxia who presides over the loosening of girdles at weddings, and Chalcidius for a drawing back.^[3]

Medieval Latin used it for a reply and a repetition.^[5] English replication (late 14th century), first “an answer” and in law “a rejoinder”, came through Anglo-French from it.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a contrary rotation.^[2][7]
• 158 AD – An inscription has the word.^[3]
• 297–310 AD – Arnobius uses it of untying girdles.^[3][7]
• c. 300 AD – Chalcidius uses it for a drawing back.^[3][7]
• late 14th century – English borrows it, through Anglo-French, as replicacioun.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A turning back, a contrary rotation.^[2][3]
2. An unfastening, untying.^[3]
3. A drawing back.^[3]
4. (law) The plaintiff's replication, a reply to the defendant's exceptio.^[2][4][3]
5. (Medieval Latin) A reply; a repetition.^[5][1]

Related words

• English replication

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de