acriter

Forms

ācriter (comparative ācrius, superlative ācerrimē)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin ācer (“sharp, keen”) + -ter.^[2][1] De Vaan traces ācer to Proto-Italic *ā̆kri- (“sharp”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ-ro- (“sharp”), cognate with Oscan akrid (“sharply”), Ancient Greek ἄκρος (ákros, “highest, outermost”) and Lithuanian aštrus (“sharp”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has suēs moriuntur angīnā ācerrumē, “pigs die most violently of quinsy”, and amātur atque egētur ācriter, “there is intense love and intense want”.^[2] Köbler first records it in Cicero.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Ācriter is “strongly, violently, forcefully” (Plautus), “distinctly, clearly” (Cicero: everyone sees faults in a speaker more sharply than merits), of colour “vividly”, and “closely, attentively” (Cicero: attendam ācriter).^[2][1] With verbs of action it is “vigorously, keenly” (Caesar of fighting fiercely), with verbs of feeling “intensely”, of grief “bitterly” (Ovid), and of punishment “harshly” (Cicero: caedunt ācerrimē virgīs, “they beat him most savagely with rods”).^[2][5][1]

Church Latin glosses it “keenly, sharply, violently”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: amātur atque egētur ācriter.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero: caedunt ācerrimē virgīs.^[2][4]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid: flēns ācrius ipsa.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adverb

1. sharply, violently, forcefully.^[2][1][6]
2. Clearly, distinctly; vividly.^[2]
3. Closely, attentively.^[2]
4. Vigorously, keenly, zealously.^[2][1][6]
5. Intensely; bitterly.^[2]
6. harshly, severely.^[2]

Related words

• ācer
• ācrimōnia
• acerbus

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 k l m 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson