Etymologically
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absens

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Forms

absēns (genitive absentis); third-declension one-termination adjective[1][2] The spelling apsens is also found.[1]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the present participle from Latin absum (“to be away”).[1][3][2] The verb is ab- with sum (“to be”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *es- (“to be”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”).[2] Cognate with Oscan súm (“I am”) and Umbrian est (“is”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,[2][4] who in the Mercator has a character call absent gods to witness.[1]

Semantic evolution

It means not present in person, absent, and so in one's absence, often coupled with praesens; it is used especially of accused persons tried in their absence and of candidates standing for office while away.[1] It also means absent in mind, and, with emphasis, though absent or without meeting the other party, as in Plautus.[1] Of things it means elsewhere or non-existent, as Horace's countryman who praises the distant town.[1] Tertullian and later Christian writers use it very often.[5] Church Latin keeps the sense absent.[6] In medieval charters it describes a holding without a tenant.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of absent gods called as witnesses.[1][2][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a man accused in his absence.[1][4]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of a distant town.[1][4]
  • c. 45–96 AD – Statius of a man absent in mind.[1][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Not present in person, absent; in one's absence.[1][3][6]
  2. Of accused persons and candidates, absent from the proceedings.[1]
  3. Absent in mind or spirit.[1]
  4. Though absent, without meeting the other party.[1]
  5. Of things, physically elsewhere; non-existent.[1]
  6. (Medieval Latin) Of a holding, without a tenant.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill