rhythmicus

Forms

rhythmicus, rhythmica, rhythmicum; first and second declension^[1] The OLD also records the spelling rythmicus.^[1] Medieval texts write rithmicus and ritmicus.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ῥυθμικός (rhuthmikós).^[1][3][2] Köbler connects it with the Latin noun rhythmus.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero, in the De oratore, uses the plural rhythmicī for the experts on rhythm, whose strict rules he says the orator need not follow.^[1][5][4]

Semantic evolution

Besides the plural noun for teachers of rhythm in prose and verse, which Quintilian also uses,^[1][5] the adjective meant “rhythmic, concerned with rhythm”: Terentianus Maurus speaks of magistrī rhythmicī.^[1] The feminine rhythmica became the name of the science of rhythm, one of the parts of music in Isidore of Seville.^[6][7]

In medieval Latin it described verse built on accent and syllable count, as distinct from quantitative metre: Aldhelm speaks of a carmen rithmicum, and Bede of a text written partly in metrical and partly in rhythmic language.^[2] It was also used of vernacular verse and of music.^[2]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses rhythmicī for the theorists of rhythm.^[1][4]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian refers to the same experts.^[1][4]
• 2nd half of the 4th century AD – The grammarian Diomedes uses it as an adjective.^[6][8][4]
• 5th century AD – Martianus Capella has it in his allegory of the liberal arts.^[5][4]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville names rhythmica as a part of music.^[6][7][4]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm calls a poem a carmen rithmicum.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or concerned with rhythm; rhythmic, measured.^[1][8]
2. (Medieval Latin) Of verse based on accent and syllable count rather than quantity.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin, music) Rhythmic.^[2][7]

Noun

1. (in the plural) Theorists or teachers of rhythm in prose.^[1][5]
2. rhythmica (feminine): the theory of rhythm, as a part of music.^[6][7]

Related words

• rhythmus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d Lexicon musicum Latinum medii aevi (1992–), Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften; online ed. Wörterbuchnetz
8. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.