amaritudo

Forms

amāritūdō f (genitive amāritūdinis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin amārus (“bitter”) + -tūdō.^[2][3][1] De Vaan finds the origin of amārus uncertain; he thinks a link with Sanskrit अम्ल (amlá-, “sour”) and Old Norse apr (“sharp, cold”) more convincing in meaning than one with Ancient Greek ὠμός (ōmós, “raw”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Varro,^[4][5] who says that the palate rejects olives for their bitterness.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is bitterness of taste,^[2][6] in Varro and Pliny the Elder; the TLL notes that it is absent from poetry as well as from Cicero, Caesar, Sallust, Livy and Vitruvius.^[3][6] Quintilian uses it of a harsh, almost unmusical voice, for which the Greeks used the word for bitterness.^[2] Figuratively it is bitterness of feeling, acrimony or harshness, as Valerius Maximus' bitterness of hatred, and also grief or sorrow.^[2][6] The Vulgate explains the place name Mara as “bitterness”.^[6] Church Latin has it as bitterness, anguish.^[7] The TLL notes that it continues in French amertume.^[3]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro, of bitter olives.^[2][4][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of bitter taste.^[6][5]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian, of a harsh voice.^[2][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate, of the waters of Mara.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Bitterness of taste.^[2][6][1]
2. Harshness of sound.^[2][1]
3. Bitterness of feeling, acrimony, harshness;^[2][6][1] grief, sorrow, anguish.^[6][1][7]

Related words

• amāricō
• amāritās
• amāriter
• amāritiēs
• amāror
• amārulentia
• amārulentus
• amārus

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c 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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson