treatise

English

Etymology

From Middle English tretys, from Anglo-Norman tretiz and Old French traitis (“treatise, account”), from traitier (“to deal with, treat”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɹiːtɪs/, /ˈtɹiːtɪz/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːtɪs

Noun

treatise (plural treatises)

1. A formal, usually lengthy, systematic discourse on some subject.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “An Act of Parliament”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 191:

     "As you cannot make a speech, you must," said Henrietta, "put it into a treatise."

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     “ […] We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps ? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic ? […]”

   • 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 232d:

     And if someone wants to know how to make objections to actual craftsmen themselves on the subject of art in general or any particular art, there are published treatises available, as you know.

   • 2013 July-August, Sarah Glaz, “Ode to Prime Numbers”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:

     Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.

Synonyms

• dissertation
• disquisition
• monograph
• treatment (informal explanation, usually in essay form)

Derived terms

• learned treatise

 

Related terms

• treat
• treaty

Translations

systematic discourse on some subject

• Arabic: رِسَالَة f (risāla)
• Bulgarian: трактат (bg) m (traktat)
• Catalan: tractat (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 論文／论文 (zh) (lùnwén), 論述／论述 (zh) (lùnshù), 專著／专著 (zh) (zhuānzhù), 論著／论著 (zh) (lùnzhù)

• Czech: pojednání n, vědecký spis, odborná stať
• Danish: afhandling
• Dutch: verhandeling (nl) f, scriptie (nl)
• Esperanto: traktaĵo
• Finnish: tutkielma (fi)
• French: traité (fr) m
• Galician: tratado (gl) m
• German: Abhandlung (de) f, Traktat (de) m or n
• Greek: διατριβή (el) f (diatriví), πραγματεία (el) f (pragmateía)
• Hebrew: מסכת (he) f (masékhet)
• Hindi: प्रबंध (hi) m (prabandh)
• Icelandic: fræðileg ritgerð f
• Indonesian: risalah (id)
• Italian: trattato (it)
• Japanese: 論文 (ja) (ろんぶん, ronbun)
• Kazakh: трактат (traktat), ғақлия (ğaqliä)
• Latin: detractatus m, tractātus m
• Luxembourgish: Traité m
• Macedonian: тракта́т m (traktát)
• Maori: tuhinga whakapae
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: avhandling

• Polish: traktat (pl) m
• Portuguese: tratado (pt) m
• Romanian: tratat (ro) n
• Russian: тракта́т (ru) m (traktát), курс (ru) m (kurs), нау́чный труд m (naúčnyj trud)
• Spanish: tratado (es) m
• Swedish: avhandling (sv) c
• Ukrainian: тракта́т (uk) m (traktát)

Anagrams

• ariettes, iterates, teariest, testeria, treaties