Etymologically
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appetitus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ap.pɛˈtiː.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ap.peˈtiː.tus][1]

Forms

appetītus m (genitive appetītūs); fourth declension[1] It is also spelled adpetītus.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin appetō (“to strive after; assail”) + -tus, a fourth-declension noun of action.[2][1][4] appetō is a compound of ad- and petō (“to make for, seek”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero uses it first;[5] the TLL finds it, among the authors with full indexes, only in Cicero and Apuleius.[4]

Semantic evolution

It is a desire or appetite for something, especially a natural or instinctive one:[2] Cicero speaks of the appetite for pleasure,[3] and in his philosophical works it is the faculty of desire, the Greek ὁρμή, one of the two powers of the soul beside reason, which drives a person this way and that.[3] In the plural it is the passions, which Cicero says must obey reason.[3] Lewis & Short think it is perhaps only Ciceronian in the classical period.[3] Ammianus uses it of an onset or attack, the attacks of the barbarians.[3] The Vulgate has it in Genesis and Ezekiel,[3] and Stelten gives "appetite, hunger, passion" for Church Latin.[6] Through Old French it is the source of the English appetite.[7]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of the faculty of desire and the passions.[3][5]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius.[4]
  • c. 390 AD – Ammianus of attacks.[3]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate in Genesis.[3]
  • c. 1300 – appetite appears in English, “craving for food”.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A desire, longing, appetite (for something), especially a natural one.[2][3][1]
  2. (philosophy) The faculty of desire, impulse;[3][1] (plural) the passions, appetites.[3][1]
  3. (Late Latin) An onset, assault.[3][1]
  4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Appetite, hunger, passion.[6]

Usage notes

Appetītus, -a, -um is also the perfect passive participle of appetō.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com