thesis

Forms

thesis f (genitive thesis); third declension^[1] Accusative ⟨thesin⟩, ablative ⟨thesī⟩;^[2][3] medieval writers also have the accusative ⟨thesim⟩.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek θέσις (thésis, “a setting down, placing; a proposition”).^[5][1][6] The Greek noun is an action noun of setting or putting,^[6][7] which Köbler and Etymonline trace to Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to set, put”).^[6][7] Lewis & Short give prōpositum as the native Latin equivalent of the rhetorical sense, and Georges positiō or ⟨dēpositiō vōcis⟩ for the metrical one.^[8][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Seneca the Elder, in the preface to the first book of his Controversiae: Cicero, he says, did not declaim the kind of cases now called controversiae, nor even those of the generation before him, but the ones they called theses.^[5][9] Elsewhere he says the rhetorician Latro spoke tamquam thesim, as if on a general question, when he asked whether a son should rather go to ransom his captive father or stay to feed his blind mother.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In rhetoric a thesis was the general or abstract question, as opposed to the particular case with its persons and circumstances.^[5][8][2] Quintilian gives as an example of a thesis drawn from comparison whether country life or city life is better, and reports that some separate the thesis from the case as the theoretical part from the practical one;^[5][9] Suetonius also uses it in his lives of the rhetoricians.^[5]

The metrical writers used it for the lowered, unstressed part of a foot, as against the arsis:^[5][8] Terentianus Maurus says a spondee has as much in the arsis as in the thesis,^[5] and Martianus Capella defines the arsis as the raising and the thesis as the lowering and slackening of the voice.^[8][3] An inscription uses it of a sum deposited with a vow, to be forfeited if the vow was granted.^[2][10]

Medieval writers kept the metrical and musical sense: Aldhelm uses it in his treatise on metre,^[4] and music theorists from Isidore of Seville on paired arsis and thesis as the rise and fall of a melody.^[3] In the schools it became the question or proposition to be discussed:^[4] John of Salisbury calls it a question free of the ties of particular circumstances,^[4] and the Oxford statutes of 1549 require a respondent to pronounce at least three theses in the words in which he would defend them.^[4] It also kept the literal sense of a placing or setting down.^[4] English thesis was first a metrical term (late 14th century); the sense in logic is recorded from the 1570s and that of a dissertation for a degree from the 1650s.^[7]

Timeline

• Seneca the Elder – He says that Cicero declaimed the exercises called theses.^[5][9]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian distinguishes the thesis from the particular case.^[5][6]
• 5th century AD – Martianus Capella defines the thesis as the lowering of the voice.^[8][3][6]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it of the unstressed part of a metrical foot.^[4][6]
• c. 1160 – John of Salisbury uses it of a general question for discussion.^[4][6]
• late 14th century – English borrows thesis as a metrical term.^[7]
• 1549 – The Oxford statutes require a respondent to defend three theses.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rhetoric) A general or abstract question, as opposed to a particular case; a proposition for debate.^{[5][8][2][10]}
2. (prosody) The unstressed part of a metrical foot; the lowering of the voice, as opposed to arsis.^[5][8][2]
3. (inscriptions) A sum deposited with a vow and forfeited when the vow is granted.^[2][10]
4. (Medieval Latin) A placing, setting down.^[4]
5. (Medieval Latin) A question for discussion; a thesis to be defended in a disputation.^[4][11]
6. (Medieval Latin, music) A descent in pitch, the fall of a melody.^[3][4]

Related words

• English thesis

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d e f Lexicon musicum Latinum medii aevi (1992–), Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften; online ed. Wörterbuchnetz
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
11. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson