ambiguitas

Forms

ambiguitās f (genitive ambiguitātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ambiguus (“doubtful, of double meaning”) + -tās.^[2][1] De Vaan lists that adjective, beside ambigō (“to dispute”), among the compounds of agō (“to drive, do”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *ag-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-e/o- (“to drive, lead”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first known use is in Cicero's De inventione, of the double meaning of a word.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

It is the quality of having more than one meaning, ambiguity:^[2][4] Livy speaks of the ambiguity of a word, and Quintilian treats it as a term of rhetoric, the equivalent of Greek amphibolia.^[6] Concretely, in the plural, it is an ambiguous expression: Seneca speaks of leaving aside ambiguities, syllogisms and quibbles, and Quintilian mentions far-fetched ambiguities.^[2] More generally it is uncertainty; in the Vulgate something that comes to pass sine ambiguitāte happens without fail.^[4]

In medieval Latin it meant doubt.^[7] English took over ambiguity about 1400, from Old French and directly from Latin, first in the sense of uncertainty or hesitation.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the double meaning of a word.^[4][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy speaks of the ambiguity of a word.^[4][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses the plural of ambiguous arguments.^[2][5]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it as a term of rhetoric.^[6][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate has sine ambiguitāte, “without fail”.^[4][5]
• c. 1400 – English borrows it as ambiguity.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Double meaning, ambiguity, equivocalness.^[2][4]
2. (concrete) An ambiguous expression.^[2]
3. Uncertainty;^[4][7] (Medieval Latin) doubt.^[4][7]

Related words

• ambiguus
• ambigō
• English ambiguity

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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 c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com