Etymologically
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situatio

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Forms

situātiō f (genitive situātiōnis); third declension[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin situō (“to place, situate”) + -tiō.[3][4] The verb comes from situs1 (“place, position, site”).[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates its first source to before 1250 and glosses it as a placing, location and place.[2] In the DMLBS its earliest quotations, for the position of things, come from Bartholomaeus Anglicus, who notes that the teats of the mare and the elephant differ in their position, and in Oxford questions of about 1290 on the different placing of the eyes.[3]

Semantic evolution

In British Medieval Latin it had three uses: the act of setting something in place, as of building stones set in a mill-flume or a door fitted, in 16th-century Durham accounts; a place or site, as of salt-pans in a Dunfermline charter of 1450; and position or situation in general.[3] Peckham and Wyclif used it in philosophy, and Kilwardby and Siccavilla in mathematics, of the position of the parts of lines, surfaces and bodies.[3] Ecclesiastical Latin also has it for a situation or circumstance.[1]

English situation came from it, directly or through Old French, in the early 15th century, first meaning “place, position, location”; the sense “state of affairs” is from 1710.[4]

Timeline

  • before 1250 – Köbler's first source uses it.[2]
  • c. 1290 – Oxford questions use it of the position of the eyes.[3]
  • early 15th century – English situation “place, position” is recorded.[4]
  • 1450 – A Dunfermline charter uses it of the sites of salt-pans.[3]
  • 1513 – Durham accounts use it of setting stones in place.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Medieval Latin) The act of setting something in place.[3][2]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A place, site.[3][2]
  3. (Medieval Latin) Position, situation;[3][1][4] (philosophy) spatial position.[3][1][4]
  4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A situation, circumstance.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  2. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com