adamantinus

Forms

adamantinus (feminine adamantina, neuter adamantinum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀδαμάντινος (adamántinos, “of adamant, hard as adamant”),^[1][2][3] though the OLD analyses it as formed from adamās with the suffix -īnus.^[4] The Greek adjective is formed from ἀδάμας (adámas, “unbreakable; adamant”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Lucretius,^[3] who speaks of adamantina saxa, stones used to defying blows, which the OLD takes as diamonds.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The poets used it of the hardest metal of legend: Horace has Mars clad in an adamantine tunic and the adamantine nails that Necessity drives in, Propertius the adamantine yoke under which the Colchian woman drove the fire-breathing bulls.^[4][6] Pliny the Elder used it of a hardness like that of the diamond, and Apuleius of the firmness of walls.^[4] L&S give the poetic sense “inflexible, invincible”.^[6]

Christian writers have adamantine chains and an adamantine nail,^[7] and Ecclesiastical Latin uses it for “unconquered, unbreakable”.^[8] Medieval British writers used it literally and, figuratively, for something lasting.^[9] English adopted it about 1200 as adamantine.^[5]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius speaks of adamantine stones.^[4][3]
• 65–8 BC – Horace dresses Mars in an adamantine tunic.^[4][3]
• 57/46–12 BC – Propertius writes of an adamantine yoke.^[4][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder compares a stone's hardness to the diamond's.^[4][3]
• c. 1200 – English borrows it as adamantine.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made of adamant or steel, the hardest of substances; as hard as adamant.^[4][6]
2. Like diamond;^[4] adamantina saxa, diamonds.^[4]
3. (figurative) Inflexible, unbreakable, invincible.^[6][8]

Related words

• English adamantine

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press