Etymologically
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amaritudo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [a.maː.rɪˈtuː.doː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [a.ma.riˈtuː.do][1]

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]
  • 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