transcendentia

Forms

trānscendentia f (genitive trānscendentiae); first declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin trānscendēns + -ia, on the present participle of trānscendō (“to climb over”).^[1][3] That verb is formed with trāns- on scandō (“to climb”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The land-surveyor Agennius Urbicus uses it for the passing from one line of argument to another.^[1][5]

Semantic evolution

In the surveyors' writings it is a technical term of legal argument.^[1] Georges and Lewis & Short give it the general sense of a crossing over or transcending.^[2][6] Scholastic philosophy used it for the quality of being transcendent: Wyclif, in his Logic, speaks of the transcendentia of a subject.^[3][7]

Timeline

• 4th–5th century AD – Agennius Urbicus uses it.^[1][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law, rhetoric) A transition from one line of argument to another.^[1]
2. A crossing over, a transcending.^[6][2][7]
3. (Medieval Latin, philosophy) Transcendence, the quality of being transcendent or transcendental.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c 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. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson