More about diction

Diction ultimately comes from Latin 诲颈肠迟颈艒 (inflectional stem 诲颈肠迟颈艒n-) 鈥渟peaking, act of speaking, (oracular) utterance, word, expression,鈥� a derivative of the verb 诲墨肠别谤别 鈥渢o say, speak, talk.鈥� 顿颈肠迟颈艒, though a word in general Latin vocabulary, is naturally connected very closely with rhetoric and law, two very important professions among the Romans. 顿墨肠别谤别, earlier deicere, comes from the very common Proto-Indo-European root deik- (also deig-), dik- (dig-) 鈥渢o show, point out,鈥� and appears in Greek 诲别铆办苍测蝉迟丑补颈 鈥渢o show, point out,鈥� Gothic ga-teihan 鈥渢o show, make clear,鈥� and German zeigen 鈥渢o show.鈥� The 13th-century English philologist, grammarian, and university professor John of Garland coined the word 诲颈肠迟颈艒n膩rius as the title for one of his Latin textbooks in which he grouped lexical items thematically. Garland explained that his 诲颈肠迟颈艒n膩rius was not based on the sense of 诲颈肠迟颈艒 as a single word, but 诲颈肠迟颈艒 in the sense of connected discourse. In the 14th century the Benedictine monk, translator, and encyclopedist Pierre Bersuire used the term 诲颈肠迟颈艒n膩rium as the title for an alphabetical encyclopedia of the Vulgate (St. Jerome鈥檚 version of the Latin Bible, completed at the end of the 4th century). By the 15th century, 诲颈肠迟颈艒n膩rium acquired the generalized sense 鈥渁lphabetized wordbook.鈥� Diction entered English in the 15th century.