aedificatio Latin · revision 35710

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=la aedificō}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''aedificātiō''' ''f'' (genitive aedificātiōnis); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|aedificō|-tiō|t1=to build]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The TLL finds it twice in Plautus and notes that all the other poets avoided the word.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010) De Vaan's first author for it is Cato,^(de Vaan 2008) whose speech uses it of a building.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In Classical prose it meant both the act of building and the building itself.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Varro speaks of directing one's building towards the care of the ancients rather than the luxury of his own day, and Cicero calls someone's building “immense and intolerable”;^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Cicero also uses it of a house with all its buildings, and of the built-up area of a city.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Conte 2010)

+

+ The Vulgate gave it a figurative sense: Paul speaks ''ad aedificātiōnem'', “for edification”, the building up of the Church and of believers.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Conte 2010)^(Stelten 1995) This moral and religious edification is the sense Niermeyer records for the medieval language.^(Niermeyer 1976) British medieval Latin also used it for the building of churches and houses and for the duty of repairing bridges and fortresses.^(DMLBS)

+

+ English [[m|en|edification]] was borrowed in the mid-14th century in its religious sense, partly through Old French.^(Etymonline) It survives in [[it|edificazione]].^(Conte 2010)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it twice.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of a building.^(OLD 2012)^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of the act of building.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of building works and of a city's buildings.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Conte 2010)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it for spiritual edification.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * mid-14th century – English borrows it as [[m|en|edification]].^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The act or process of [[m|en|building]], construction.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # A building, [[m|en|edifice]]; a group of buildings, a built-up area.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Conte 2010)

+ # ''(Ecclesiastical Latin)'' [[m|en|edification]], building up (of the Church or of a person).^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Stelten 1995)^(Niermeyer 1976)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' The duty of building or repairing bridges and fortresses.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[aedificatiuncula]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}