analogus

Forms

analogus (feminine analoga, neuter analogum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀνάλογος (análogos, “proportionate”).^[2][3][1][4] The VOLI instead treats it as formed within Latin from analogia (“proportion, analogy”).^[5] English analogue comes from it through French.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro mentions it in On the Latin Language (10.37), in the sense “proportionate”;^[3][2] the OLD notes that it occurs only in his explanation of the word analogia,^[2] and L&S records that Müller's edition prints it as a Greek word there.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Classical Latin hardly used it, and Wiktionary describes it as chiefly Medieval Latin.^[2][1] In scholastic logic it named terms said of several things by reference to one: Albertus Magnus places such words between the univocal and the equivocal,^[4] and Thomas Aquinas uses it as a synonym of analogicus, explaining it with the stock example of “healthy”, said first of an animal and then of urine or medicine.^[7] British writers such as Neckam, Bacon and Bradwardine use it for what is analogous or based on analogy.^[8] As a neuter noun it denoted a term that holds several distinct notions, or what is common to them by analogy.^[4] Ecclesiastical Latin also used it for “suitable, appropriate”.^[9]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it in On the Latin Language to explain analogia.^[2][3][10]
• 1826 – English borrows the French form as analogue, “an analogous thing”.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Proportionate, analogous.^[2][3][11]
2. (Medieval Latin, logic) Said of a term applied to several things by their relation to one, midway between univocal and equivocal.^[4][7]
3. (Medieval Latin) Corresponding, similar; in keeping with.^[4][8]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Suitable, appropriate.^[9]

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin, neuter) An analogous term; what is common by analogy to several notions.^[4]

Related words

• analogia
• analogicus
• English analogue

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Schütz, Ludwig (1895), Thomas-Lexikon, 2nd ed., Paderborn: F. Schöningh
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
11. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.