revelatio

Forms

revēlātiō f (genitive revēlātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin revēlō (“to unveil, uncover, reveal”) + -tiō.^[1][2][3] The verb is formed from re- (“back”) and vēlō (“to cover, veil”), from vēlum (“veil”).^[4] The bilingual glossaries give Greek ἀποκάλυψις (apokálupsis, “uncovering, revelation”) as its equivalent.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tertullian is the first to use it, of revelation, in his works against Marcion and against the Valentinians.^[7][8][9] The literal sense, an uncovering, is in Arnobius, of the private parts.^[7][2][3]

Semantic evolution

It is a word of Christian Latin.^[7][2] Lactantius uses it as the name of the Revelation of John, the Apocalypse;^[7][2] Augustine, in the Confessions, speaks of dreams and imagined revelations;^[7][6] and the Vulgate has it in First Corinthians, of believers waiting for the revelation of the Lord.^[7] Medieval writers used it for revealed truth.^[10] Thomas Aquinas distinguishes it from mere vision: there is revelation only when the meaning of what is seen is also understood, and he names divine, prophetic and angelic revelation among its kinds.^[11]

Du Cange records two other medieval uses: careful consideration, in a letter of King John of France of 1354, and the raising of a saint's body from the tomb, which he suspects is a confusion with relevātiō.^[6] The DMLBS also treats one revelatio as a form of that word.^[12] English revelation came from Old French and directly from the Latin word;^[4] it lives on in Italian rivelazione, French révélation and Spanish revelación.^[1][8]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of revelation.^[7][8][9]
• c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius names the Revelation of John with it.^[7][2][9]
• 297–310 AD – Arnobius uses it of uncovering the body.^[7][2][9]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine writes of imagined revelations.^[7][6][9]
• 1106 – An account of the translation of Saint Geminianus uses it of raising his body.^[6]
• c. 1300 – English revelation is recorded.^[4]
• 1354 – A letter of King John of France uses it of careful consideration.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. An uncovering, laying bare.^[7][2][3][8]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A revelation, a disclosure of what was hidden, especially by God.^{[7][2][13][3]}
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The Revelation of John, the Apocalypse.^[7][2]
4. (Medieval Latin) Revealed truth.^[10]
5. (Medieval Latin) Careful consideration.^[6]
6. (Medieval Latin) The raising of a saint's body from its tomb, its translation.^[6]

Related words

• vēlum
• English revelation

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Goetz, Georg (1888–1923), Corpus glossariorum Latinorum, Leipzig: Teubner; vols. VI–VII Thesaurus glossarum emendatarum, digital ed. CGLO, Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e f g h du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
10. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
11. ^ Schütz, Ludwig (1895), Thomas-Lexikon, 2nd ed., Paderborn: F. Schöningh
12. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
13. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson