Etymologically
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agilis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈa.ɡɪ.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈaː.d͡ʒi.lis][1]

Forms

agilis (neuter agile, comparative agilior, superlative agilissimus, adverb agiliter); third-declension two-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin agō (“to drive, set in motion”) + -ilis.[2][1] De Vaan lists it, dated from Sisenna, among the derivatives of agō, which he traces to Proto-Italic *ag-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-e/o- (“to drive, lead”), comparing Ancient Greek ἄγω (ágō, “to drive, lead”) and Sanskrit अजति (ájati, “drives”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The historian Sisenna has it first, of a quick and easy victory.[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

It means moving or easily moved, nimble or swift, as a horse in an unknown tragedy, a light fleet in Livy, and a nimble thumb on the lyre strings in Ovid.[2][5] Of the mind it is alert or quick, and of a person energetic or busy, as Horace says that now he becomes active and plunges into the waves of public life.[2] Statius uses it of the sunrise that rouses living things to activity.[2] The TLL finds it after Sisenna only now and then in prose, in Livy and Velleius, more often in Seneca the Younger, and more often in poetry from Horace on.[4] English agile came from it in the 1580s, through French and directly.[6]

Timeline

  • 120–67 BC – Sisenna of a quick victory.[2][7]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of an active life.[2][7]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a light fleet.[5][7]
  • c. 45–96 AD – Statius of a rousing sunrise.[2][7]
  • 1580s – English agile is borrowed from it.[6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Easily moved; moving easily, nimble, swift, agile.[2][5][1]
  2. Of the mind, alert, quick.[2]
  3. Energetic, active, busy.[2][1]
  4. Of a victory, quick, easily won.[2]
  5. Rousing to activity.[2]

Word family

  • agilitās
  • agiliter

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de