climax Latin · revision 4546

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=Lucilius|origins=grc κλίνω}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (Classical): [ˈkliː.maks]^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkliː.maks]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''clīmax''' ''f'' (genitive clīmacis); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|grc|κλῖμαξ|tr=klîmax|t=ladder, staircase; climax]],^(Wiktionary)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010) from [[m|grc|κλίνω|tr=klínō|t=to lean]].^(Wiktionary) Köbler and Etymonline trace it to [[ine-pro|*ḱley-|t=to lean]].^(Köbler 2010)^(Etymonline) The native Latin terms were [[gradatio|alt=gradātiō]] and [[ascensus]].^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Lucilius uses it, in a fragment quoted by Servius.^(Georges 1913)^(Köbler 2010) Köbler dates Lucilius c. 180–102 BC.^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It was a rhetorical figure, a gradual increase in the force of expression.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) Quintilian still treats it as a Greek word, rendering it ''gradātiō'', while Martianus Capella uses it as Latin.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Gaffiot 2016) Isidore defines it as a gradation in which each clause begins where the last ended.^(Isidore)^(Georges 1913)

+

+ In medieval Latin it was also a ladder-like part of a cart, a figure of rhetoric and a compound remedy made in graded parts.^(MLW) Aldhelm says the Greek grammarians call Paul's linked argument in Romans a ''climax''.^(DMLBS) [[en|climax]] is recorded in the 1580s in the rhetorical sense.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it.^(Georges 1913)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian treats it as Greek.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 560–636 AD – Isidore defines it.^(Isidore)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1580s – English ''climax'' is recorded.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(rhetoric)'' A [[m|en|climax]], gradation.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' A ladder-like part of a cart; a compound remedy.^(MLW)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[climactericus|alt=clīmactēricus]]

+ * [[en|climax]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Clīmax'' was also the name of a mountain in Media, in Pliny the Elder.^(Gaffiot 2016)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}