acervatim

Forms

acervātim (not comparable)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin acervō (“to heap up”) + -im according to the OLD;^[2] Wiktionary instead analyses it as acervus (“heap, pile”) with the suffix -ātim.^[1] De Vaan calls the etymology of that noun uncertain: Rix connects it with acus (“awn, chaff”) through a form ⟨*akesuo-⟩, which de Vaan finds formally conceivable but a guess in meaning.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It appears in the 1st century BC: Lucretius writes that death heaped up the crowded bodies in piles,^[4] and Varro advises that dung be spread over the field and not left in heaps.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is in heaps or piles,^[2][4] as in Columella and Pliny the Elder.^[2] The Bellum Alexandrinum says that most of the Alexandrians threw themselves from the rampart in a mass,^[2][4] and Tacitus that many were accused of treason all together.^[6] Cicero, in the Orator, uses it of style, of not piling up many words in one period,^[2] and Wiktionary gives a figurative sense “briefly, concisely”.^[1] Apuleius has it of blows rained on someone in great numbers.^[2]

Christian writers kept it: Lactantius mocks the worship of minor gods in heaps,^[6] and the Vulgate has it of falling in heaps.^[4]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of the dead piled up in heaps.^[4][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of words piled up in a speech.^[2][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro advises against leaving dung in heaps.^[2][4][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of many accused together.^[6][5]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of blows rained in quantity.^[2][5]
• c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius uses it of the worship of minor gods.^[6][5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. In heaps or piles.^[2][4]
2. In large quantities, profusely.^[2]
3. In a disorderly mass, all together;^[2] in a summary manner, briefly.^[2][1]

Related words

• acervālis
• acervō
• acervus

References

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