abusivus

Forms

abūsīvus (feminine abūsīva, neuter abūsīvum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin abūtor (“to use up; to misuse”) + -īvus, formed on the participle stem ⟨abūs-⟩ of the verb.^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is an anonymous panegyric in the collection of Latin panegyrics: addressed to Constantine, it speaks of a name mutilated by a misapplied title.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

In the schools it became a technical word for a term used loosely or out of its proper sense, the opposite of proprius.^[4] The grammarian Pompeius says that a certain comparison is not a true one but abūsīva;^[4] Caelius Aurelianus, writing on medicine, wants to use proper words, not loose ones;^[4] Augustine, in his unfinished work against Julian, speaks of words used abūsīvē and propriē;^[4] and Boethius distinguishes definitions in the strict sense from those so called loosely.^[4] The grammarian Consentius calls possessive nouns abūsīva as well.^[4]

A treatise ascribed to Cyprian, On the Twelve Abuses of the World, uses the neuter as a noun for a perversion of the right order of things (a wise man without works, an old man without religion).^[4] Medieval Latin used it of what constitutes an abuse.^[6] English abusive, first “improper”, came from it through French.^[3]

Timeline

• 3rd–4th century AD – An anonymous panegyric to Constantine uses it of a misapplied title.^[2][4][5]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine opposes words used loosely to words used properly.^[4][5]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it of loosely used medical terms.^[4][5]
• 1530s – English abusive is borrowed, through French.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Late Latin) Misapplied, used improperly.^[2][4][1]
2. (grammar, rhetoric) Used loosely, not in the proper or literal sense; catachrestic.^[4]
3. (Medieval Latin) Constituting an abuse, misused.^[6]

Noun

1. (Late Latin, neuter) An abuse, a thing contrary to right order.^[4]

Related words

• abūsus
• English abusive

Usage notes

The adverb abūsīvē is older: Quintilian says that poets use neighbouring words abūsīvē even for things that have names of their own, and the jurist Ulpian opposes it to propriē.^[4] It goes with the noun abūsiō, which Quintilian discusses among the figures of speech.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill