typicus

Forms

typicus (feminine typica, neuter typicum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek τυπικός (tupikós, “figurative, typical”),^[2][3][4] or formed within Latin as typus + -icus.^[1] The Greek adjective is from τύπος (túpos, “blow, impression, image”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Caelius Aurelianus, in the 5th century, uses it in medicine for what recurs at intervals, such as a periodic trembling or attacks of fever.^[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

In Christian Latin it meant figurative or typical in the sense of prefiguring: Sedulius calls Moses typicus, a type of Christ.^[2][6] Medieval writers used it of the symbolic or allegorical reading of Scripture,^[4][7] and Thomas Aquinas speaks of the sensus typicus.^[8]

In Neo-Latin it was also used of printing: Aldus wrote in 1501 that he was kept busy with printing and literary business.^[9] In New Latin taxonomy, as a specific epithet, it marks the type species of a genus.^[1]

Timeline

• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it of recurring attacks of illness.^[2][3]
• first half of the 5th century AD – Sedulius uses it of Moses as a figure of Christ.^[2][6][3]
• 1501 – Aldus uses it of printing work in a preface.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (medicine) Periodic, recurring at intervals.^[2][5]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Figurative, symbolic, typical (prefiguring).^[2][10][7]
3. (Medieval Latin) Of the allegorical interpretation of Scripture.^[4][8]
4. (New Latin) Of printing.^[9]
5. (New Latin, taxonomy) In a binomial name, marking the type species.^[1]

Noun

1. (medicine, in the plural) People with an intermittent fever.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Schütz, Ludwig (1895), Thomas-Lexikon, 2nd ed., Paderborn: F. Schöningh
9. ^ a b c Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de
10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson