SUBREPTION defined

[Ronald Butters]

 In linguistics, SUBREPTION is defined as
the continued existence of a signifier, while the signified changes
either in some real or some intellectual way (i.e., in terms of its
understanding) without a disruption or sharp break in the history of
the word. [Anthony Arlotto, Introduction to Historical Linguistics,
1972: 181].

Seealso  <http://www.odlt.org/ballast/subreption.html>:

subreption
Definition - A semantic-change process in which a shift in a word's denotation causes it to deviate from its etymological and/or literal meaning.

Example - Because two additional months were added to the Roman calendar, the name September — which derives from the Latin septem, seven — now refers to the ninth month of the year, instead of the seventh.

Etymology - The word derives from the Latin subreptio, a snatching away.
Note: In English the word was originally a term from ecclesiastical law that denoted either the suppression of the truth or the concealment of facts so as to obtain a dispensation.



On Mar 13, 2012, at 2:55 AM, W Brewer wrote:

> Ron, I do not know what subreption means in this context. (Wp: philosophy
> xxx a creeping or tacit assumption(s) that is not explicitly given but is
> hidden either purposefully (as in sophistry) or not (as in a visual
> illusion).

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