verticalis

Forms

verticālis (neuter verticāle, adverb verticāliter); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin vertex + -ālis, from the noun for the crown of the head and highest point.^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Georges and Gaffiot quote it from the Roman land surveyors (the Gromatici), meaning vertical, perpendicular;^[2][4][3] Köbler dates its first record, in the Liber coloniarum, to the 5th century AD.^[5]

Semantic evolution

After the surveyors' “perpendicular”,^[2][3] Medieval Latin used it of the pope as the highest in the hierarchy of the Church.^[6][1] In Neo-Latin astronomy it meant “standing over the head”: Conrad Celtis wrote of the stars overhead of Germany and of a city as sidera verticalia.^[7][1] New Latin taxonomy used it for “whirled”.^[1]

Italian verticale continues the Late Latin word,^[3] and German vertikal was borrowed from it.^[5] English vertical (1550s, first “directly overhead”) came through French from Late Latin verticalis.^[8]

Timeline

• 5th century AD – The Liber coloniarum uses it, Köbler's first record.^[5]
• 1540s – French vertical is formed from the Late Latin word.^[8]
• 1550s – English vertical is first recorded, meaning “directly overhead”.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Vertical, perpendicular.^[2][4][3]
2. (Medieval Latin, of the pope) Highest in the ecclesiastical hierarchy.^[6]
3. (New Latin, astronomy) Situated directly overhead, at the zenith.^[7][1]
4. (New Latin, taxonomy) Whirled.^[1]

Word family

• verticāliter

Related words

• vertō
• English vertical

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com