Etymologically
Log in

abundantia

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 04:11. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [a.bʊnˈdan.ti.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [a.bunˈdan.t͡si.a][1]

Forms

abundantia f (genitive abundantiae); first declension[1] Grammarians say it is written without h, but habundantia is common in manuscripts.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin abundāns (“overflowing”) + -ia, from the participle of abundō “to overflow”.[3][1][4] That verb is formed from ab- and unda “wave”, which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *udōr and Proto-Indo-European *ud-ōr (“water”), comparing Umbrian utur (“water”) and Ancient Greek ὕδωρ (húdōr).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,[6] who in the De inventione writes of greatness as a great abundance of power, majesty or resources.[3]

Semantic evolution

It is an overflowing: Vitruvius writes of the overflow of water being caught, and Pliny the Elder of sponges squeezing out an excess of moisture.[3] Mostly it is a large amount of anything, plenty, in Cicero's time and Augustus' usually with a genitive, as in Cicero's abundance and plenty of all things, of leisure, of love.[3][7] It is also too much of something: Florus says the slave wars came from the great number of slaves.[3] In style it is exuberance or redundancy, as Cicero's speakers of faulty fullness such as Asia produced.[3] Columella uses it of an abundant yield, and Cicero of wealth, as in the lust that was in their abundance remains.[3] Church Latin glosses it abundance, plenty, prosperity or richness.[8] English abundance appears in the mid-14th century.[4]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of plenty, of style, and of wealth.[3][7][6]
  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of an overflow of water.[3][6]
  • 1st century AD – Columella of an abundant yield.[3][6]
  • c. 120 AD – Florus of too many slaves.[3][6]
  • mid-14th century – English abundance.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An overflowing; an excess of liquid.[3]
  2. Abundance, plenty, fullness; too much, a superabundance.[3][7][1][8]
  3. Exuberance of style, redundancy.[3]
  4. An abundant yield; wealth, affluence.[3][7][8]

References

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