altitudo

Forms

altitūdō f (genitive altitūdinis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin altus (“high; deep”) + -tūdō.^[2][3] De Vaan traces ⟨altus⟩ to Proto-Italic *alto- (“high”) and, with a query, Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-to-, cognate with Old Irish alt (“height, bank, coast”) and Welsh allt (“hillside”).^[4] The adjective has the same form as the participle of alō (“to nourish”), but de Vaan finds the meanings hard to connect.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan's first author is Cato, whose De agri cultura tells the builder to regulate the height of a structure.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

It is height, the extent upwards, as Caesar's mountain of great height, and of people and animals their stature, Gellius uses it of the pitch of the voice.^[2] It is a high position, height above the earth (Cicero on the stars), and figuratively eminence of rank and fame.^[2] It is also the vertical, a height or summit, and in geometry the third dimension, which Varro sets beside length and breadth.^[2] Downwards it is depth, of water or a pit, as in Varro.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “depth, height, high place”.^[6] English altitude (late 14th century) first meant the elevation of a star above the horizon.^[3]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato of the height of a structure.^[4][5][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of depth and of the third dimension.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of eminence.^[2][7]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of mountains.^[2][7]
• late 14th century – English altitude.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Height, tallness, (of sound) pitch.^[2][1][6]
2. A high position, (figuratively) eminence.^[2]
3. A height, high place; the top.^[2][6]
4. (geometry) The third dimension, height, thickness.^[2]
5. Depth.^[2][1][6]

Related words

• altō
• altus
• English altitude

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de