reprehensio

Forms

reprehēnsiō f (genitive reprehēnsiōnis); third declension^[1] A contracted form reprēnsiō is also found.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin reprehendō (“to hold back; to blame”) + -tiō.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Varro.^[4] The OLD's earliest quotations are from Cicero, who calls someone worthy not only of censure but of punishment.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its literal sense is a holding back, and Cicero uses it of a check in speaking: speech without pause or check.^[5] Usually it is blame, censure, a reprimand, and a particular criticism: Cicero sets out two kinds of criticism of his work.^[2][5] In rhetoric it is a speaker's correction of his own words, and a refutation of an argument, as in the Rhetorica ad Herennium.^[2] Cicero, Seneca, Pliny and Quintilian also have the short form ⟨reprēnsiō⟩.^[3][2] Church Latin glosses it censure, rebuke, and in medieval Latin it is also a claim to recover property.^[6][7] English reprehension comes from it, partly through Old French, from the late 14th century.^[8]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it.^[4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of censure, criticism and self-correction.^[2][4]
• late 14th century – English reprehension.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A holding back, a check in speaking.^[5]
2. Blame, censure, reprimand; a criticism.^[2][5][1][6]
3. In rhetoric, self-correction; the refutation of an argument.^[2][1]
4. (Medieval Latin) A claim to recover property.^[7]

Related words

• reprehendō
• English reprehension

Usage notes

Döderlein contrasts reprehendere and vituperāre: the first aims at correcting a fault and warning for the future, the second at making someone acknowledge a fault and feel shame.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper