techna

Forms

techna f (genitive technae); first declension^[1] Plautus and Terence also have techina, which editors mostly restore for the metre; the manuscripts have it in the Mostellaria.^[2][3] Medieval spellings are tecna and tegna.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek τέχνη (tékhnē, “craft, skill; cunning, wile”).^[6][1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Plautus it is the cunning trick of a slave:^[3] in the Captivi a character complains he has been fleeced huius scelesti technis, “by this scoundrel's tricks”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

It belongs to comedy: L&S calls it ante-classical, and it is found in Plautus and Terence.^[7][3][8]

Medieval Latin took up the Greek sense “skill, art”, and Tegni was the title of Galen's medical handbook, the Τέχνη ἰατρική;^[5] the sense “trick” lived on as well, as in Walter of Wimborne's tegna Sathanica, “Satan's guile”.^[5][4] Neo-Latin writers used it for a trick or artifice.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a slave's tricks.^[7][3][10]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it in the Heauton Timorumenos and the Eunuchus.^[7][3][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A trick, wile, cunning device.^[7][3][2][8]
2. (Medieval Latin) Skill, craft, art;^[5] Tegni, the title of Galen's medical handbook.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
3. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e 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
6. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
7. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Simpson, D. P. (1959), Cassell's New Latin Dictionary, London: Cassell
9. ^ Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de
10. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de