-ia

Forms

-ia f (genitive -iae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin -ius¹ (“adjective-forming suffix”), the feminine of the adjective used as a noun.^[1][2] Weiss compares the same type in Ancient Greek σοφία (sophía, “cleverness”), from σοφός (sophós, “clever”).^[2] Occasionally the Latin ending comes instead from Ancient Greek -ία (-ía) or -εια (-eia), and so ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh₂.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus already has many abstracts with this suffix: audācia “boldness”, from audāx, invidia “ill-will”, from invideō, and mīlitia “military service”, from mīles.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its main use is to make abstract nouns from adjectives, and it also takes other kinds of base, as in inedia and mīlitia.^[3] Present participle stems give nouns such as adulēscentia.^[1][4] Rarely, and in later Latin, it is added to adjectives in -ius.^[1] A second use makes names of countries from names of peoples, as Gallia from the Gallī.^[1][4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has audācia, invidia, mīlitia and, with the enlarged form, laetitia and dūritia.^[2][5]
• c. 190–159 BC – Terence has fācundia “eloquence”.^[2][5]

Meanings

Suffix

1. Forms abstract nouns from adjectives: audācia from audāx, perītia, īnsānia from īnsānus.^[3][2]
2. Forms abstract nouns from present participle stems: adulēscentia.^[1][4]
3. Forms nouns from other bases: inedia, mīlitia from mīles, invidia from invideō.^[3][2]
4. Forms names of countries, usually beside a name of a people or an adjective in -us: Gallia.^[1][4]

Word family

• -itia
• audācia
• perītia
• inedia
• mīlitia
• dūritia
• concordia
• fācundia
• invidia
• īnsānia
• memoria
• miseria
• adulēscentia
• Gallia

Related words

• -ium
• -ius

Usage notes

According to Weiss, generally only adjectives with polysyllabic stems take -ia: īnsānus makes īnsānia, but sānus makes sānitās.^[2] A monosyllabic stem took the enlarged form -itia, as in dūritia from dūrus and laetitia from laetus, though -itia is sometimes added to other bases, as in amīcitia.^[2] He explains the apparent exception grātia as probably shortened by haplology from *grātitia.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Weiss, Michael (2020), Outline of the Historical and Comparative Grammar of Latin, 2nd ed., Ann Arbor: Beech Stave
3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Victionarium (Latin Wiktionary), la.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de