Etymologically
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anonymus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [aˈnoː.ny.mʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [aˈnɔː.ni.mus][1]

Forms

anōnymus (feminine anōnyma, neuter anōnymum); first/second-declension adjective[1] Georges heads it anōnymos, with the Greek ending.[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀνώνυμος (anṓnumos, “nameless”),[1][3][4] made of ἀ- (a-, “not”) and ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”).[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Pliny the Elder as a noun, anōnymos, the name of a plant from Scythia, literally “the nameless one”.[4][6][3]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it was used by Cassiodorus of a book by an unnamed author,[2][3] and Medieval and Ecclesiastical Latin kept it for what is anonymous or nameless.[7][8] English anonymous, from about 1600, comes from the Late Latin word.[5]

Timeline

  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder names a Scythian plant anōnymos.[4][6][3]
  • c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus uses it of a book by an unnamed author.[2][3]
  • c. 1600 – English anonymous is formed from it.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Nameless; of unknown or unnamed authorship, anonymous.[2][7][8][1]

Noun

  1. (as anōnymos, feminine) A plant from Scythia.[4][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson