ruptura

Forms

ruptūra f (genitive ruptūrae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin rumpō (“to break, burst”) + -ūra.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Aulus Gellius, for the fracture of a limb.^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

Vegetius uses it for the bursting of a vein.^[5][4]

In medieval Latin it meant any act of breaking or bursting, a breaking out of prison, a breach, and the breaking of an agreement or truce.^[6] In medicine it named a hernia,^[6] and it was the name of a disease of hawks.^[6] Land newly broken by the plough was also called ruptura: Niermeyer gives the reclaiming of waste land, the reclaimed land itself, the rent paid on it and a cleared path,^[7] and the DMLBS has the same sense of an assart.^[6] English rupture comes partly from it and partly through Old French.^[8] Italian rottura continues the post-classical word.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 165 AD – Aulus Gellius uses it for the fracture of a limb.^[2][4]
• c. 400 AD – Vegetius uses it for the bursting of a vein.^[5][4]
• 1072 – It appears in charters.^[4]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as rupture, at first in medicine.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fracture of a limb, or a rupture of a vein or vessel.^[2][3][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) A breaking or bursting; a breach; the breaking of an agreement or truce.^[6]
3. (Medieval Latin, medicine) A hernia.^[6]
4. (Medieval Latin) The reclaiming of waste land; an assart, land newly brought into cultivation; the rent paid on it.^[7][6]
5. (Medieval Latin) A cleared path.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier