dēclīnātĭo — Lewis & Short
dēclīnātĭo, ōnis, f.id.,
I a bending from a thing, a bending aside; an oblique inclination or direction (good prose).
I Lit.:
lanceam exigua corporis declinatione vitare,Curt. 9, 7 fin.; cf.:
quot ego tuas petitiones parva quadam declinatione effugi,Cic. Cat. 1, 6, 15:
declinare dixit (Epicurus) atomum perpaulum, et ipsa declinatio ad libidinem fingitur, etc.,id. Fin. 1, 6, 19; so of the oblique motion of atoms, id. Fat. 10, 22; 22, 47.—
B Like the Gr. kli/ma, the supposed slope of the earth towards the poles, a region of the earth or sky, a climate:
declinatio mundi,Col. 1 prooem. § 22; so,
mundi,id. 3, 1, 3; cf.:
positio caeli et declinatio,id. 1, 6, 18;
so correspond. with regio caeli,Col. 4, 24, 2; cf.
also caeli,the altitude of the pole, Vitr. 9, 7, 1.—
II Trop.
A In gen., a turning away from any thing; an avoiding, avoidance: ut bona natura appetimus, sic a malis natura declinamus;
quae declinatio, si cum ratione fiet, cautio appelletur,Cic. Tusc. 4, 6, 13; cf.
so opp. appetitio,id. N. D. 3, 13, 33; and in plur. Gell. 14, 1, 23:
laboris, periculi,Cic. Clu. 53 fin.—
B t. t.
1 Of rhetor. lang., a short digression:
declinatio brevis a proposito, non ut superior illa digressio,Cic. de Or. 3, 53 fin.; id. Part. 15; cf. Quint. 9, 1, 32 and 34.—
2 Of gramm. lang.: variation, inflection.
(a) In the older grammarians, every change of form which a word undergoes; as declension, strictly so called, conjugation, comparison, derivation, etc., Varr. L. L. 8, § 2 sq.; 10, § 11 sq.; Cic. de Or. 3, 54; cf.
also of declension in its stricter sense,Quint. 1, 4, 29; 1, 5, 63;
of conjugation,id. 1, 4, 13;
of derivation,id. 8, 3, 32; 2, 15, 4.—
(b) Among the later grammarians, of declension, properly so called, as distinguished from conjugatio, comparatio, derivatio, etc. So, Donatus: in declinatione compositivorum nominum, p. 174 P. (p. 13 Lind.).