Sectiones

Sectiones is the Latin plural of sectio, meaning sections or divisions. In Latin, sectio derives from the verb secare, “to cut,” and sectiones appears in manuscripts and scholarly works to refer to parts of a whole, slices, or subdivisions. In modern English usage, the form sectiones is uncommon; English texts typically use sections as the plural, with sectiones appearing mainly in Latin phrases, headings in Latin editions, or historical discussions of the term.

In taxonomy and botany, section is a rank below genus used to group closely related species. Historical Latin authors or catalogues may describe multiple divisions within a genus as sectiones, reflecting the Latin habit of naming subdivisions with the plural form. Modern botanical writing typically uses the English term or the standardized Latin abbreviation “sect.” for a given genus, but sectiones can appear in historical or bibliographic contexts.

In anatomy and histology, a section refers to a thin slice prepared for examination under a microscope. Latin descriptions from older works might refer to multiple such slices as sectiones of an organ or tissue, especially in the captioning of plates or figures.

In manuscript studies, liturgy, and law, sectiones can denote divisions of texts, statutes, or canons described in Latin sources or cited in scholarly editions. Today, sectiones is primarily encountered in historical, philological, or taxonomic discussions, where the term illustrates the Latin roots of many scientific and scholarly vocabularies.