Etymologically
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terminus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈtɛr.mɪ.nʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈtɛr.mi.nus][1]

Forms

terminus m (genitive terminī); second declension[1] The variants termō in Ennius and neuter termen in Varro and inscriptions are recorded.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *term(e)nos, a thematized form of termen, which directly continues Proto-Indo-European *térmn̥ (“boundary”); the OLD suggests that it was formed from the neuter plural termina on the analogy of locus and its plural loca.[1][3] Cognate with Ancient Greek τέρμα (térma, “goal, end”) and Ancient Greek τέρμων (térmōn, “border”), the latter, like the Latin variant termō, from the collective *térmō.[1][2] Etymonline reconstructs *ter-men- “peg, post” from a root Proto-Indo-European *ter- seen in Hittite tarma- (“peg, nail”), Sanskrit तरति (tarati, “crosses over”) and Old English þurh (“through”),[4] and Köbler, Georges and Lewis and Short connect it with terere or with trāns and intrāre.[5][6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Naevius.[5] The OLD's earliest quotations are Cato on the shrine of the god Terminus, Accius on the limit fixed by fate, and the agrarian law of 111 BC ordering boundary stones to be set up.[3]

Semantic evolution

It was the stone or post marking the boundary of a property, worshipped as a divinity, Terminus, whose shrine Livy and Ovid describe; moving a boundary stone was a crime.[3][2][6] It then meant the farthest limit of a country or empire, an extremity, and figuratively a limit or bound of an action or of fate.[3][2] Cicero uses it for the end of a dispute and the Rhetorica ad Herennium for the artful close of a speech.[3]

In medieval Latin it was a district, the territory of a city or of a castle, a township, and a stretch of waste land assigned for use;[7][5] it also came to mean a fixed period or date, a term, and in logic an expression, definition or concept.[1][5][4] English term came through Old French terme about 1200 as a limit in time, and terminus itself was borrowed in the 1610s for an end or goal.[4] The Romance languages have Italian termine, French terme, Portuguese termo and Romanian țărm “shore”.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it.[5]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato mentions the shrine of Terminus.[3][5]
  • 170–c. 90 BC – Accius writes of the limit set by fate.[3][5]
  • 111 BC – The agrarian law orders boundary stones to be set up.[3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the bounds of an art and the end of disputes.[3][8][5]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of the limit of the world.[3][5]
  • mid-8th century – The Tours formulary has medieval senses.[5]
  • c. 1200 – English Term is borrowed into English through Old French.[4]
  • 1610s – English Terminus is borrowed into English.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A boundary stone or post; the god Terminus who presided over boundaries.[3][2]
  2. The farthest limit of a country or empire; an extremity.[3]
  3. A limit, a bound.[3][2]
  4. An end, a close.[3][8]
  5. (Medieval Latin) A district; the territory of a city or castle; a township.[7][5]
  6. (Medieval Latin) A fixed period or date, a term.[1][5]
  7. (Medieval Latin, logic) A word, a term, a definition.[1][4]

Word family

  • ampterminus
  • conterminus
  • interminis
  • interminus
  • terminālis
  • terminō
  • conterminum
  • disterminus
  • exterminus
  • terminātē
  • terminātiō
  • terminātor
  • terminātus
  • termen
  • termō
  • English term
  • English terminus

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes fīnis, the boundary as a line, from terminus, a stone marking a point, and līmes, a ridge marking a line.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper