amentia

Forms

āmentia f (genitive āmentiae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from āmēns (“out of one's mind”) with the suffix -ia; the adjective is ā- (“away from”) and mēns (“mind”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan derives ⟨mēns⟩ from Proto-Italic *mn̥ti- and Proto-Indo-European *mn̥-ti- (“thought, mind”).^[4] Cognate with Sanskrit मति (matí-, “thought”), Lithuanian mintìs (“thought, idea”) and Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌹𐌽𐌸𐌹 (gaminþi, “memory”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Pacuvius as its first author,^[5] and de Vaan Terence,^[4] who has “what perversity or madness is this?” in the Heauton timorumenos.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the state of being out of one's mind, madness;^[2][6][3] Cicero says the ancestors called a state of mind lacking the light of reason both āmentia and dēmentia.^[2][6][3] It is also violent excitement or frenzy, as Accius' “my heart boils blind with anger, I am swept away by frenzy”, and poetic inspiration.^[2] More loosely it is senselessness, extreme folly or infatuation, as Terence's father worried by his son's folly.^[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “madness, insanity, mental illness”.^[7] English amentia “mental deficiency” was taken from it in the late 14th century.^[8]

Timeline

• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius.^[5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of madness and folly.^[2][5]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of frenzy.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero on āmentia and dēmentia.^[3][5]
• late 14th century – English amentia.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Madness, insanity.^[2][6][1][7]
2. Frenzy, violent excitement; poetic inspiration.^[2]
3. Senselessness, folly, infatuation.^[2][1]

Related words

• āmēns
• dēmentia
• dēmēns
• mēns
• īnsānia
• English amentia

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes the two words: āmentia shows itself negatively, the āmēns lacking reason and either not acting or acting senselessly, while dēmentia shows itself actively.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d 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 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
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper