argutia

Forms

argūtia f (genitive argūtiae); first declension^[1] It is mostly plural, argūtiae; the TLL finds the singular no earlier than Apuleius and Gellius.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin argūtus (“clear, clever”) + -ia.^[2][3][1] De Vaan takes arguō (“to show, make clear”) as a verb “to make bright” made to an adjective Proto-Italic *argu- (“bright”), which also survives in ⟨argūtus⟩; it goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂erǵ-u- (“white”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus,^[5][3] in the sense of verbal trickery: etiam me advorsus exordire argutias?, “are you starting your tricks of speech against me too?”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Cicero it is cleverness and adroitness in the use of words, as in speeches with so much of it that they seem almost Attic;^[2] it is also the expressive play of the fingers and of gesture that Cicero and Quintilian discuss in the orator's delivery,^[2] and, in a bad sense, sophistry.^[2][1]

In Seneca and Phaedrus it means jests and pleasantries.^[2] Pliny the Elder uses it of the artful notes of the nightingale and of refinement in art: the painter Parrhasius, he says, first gave liveliness to faces.^[2] Columella applies it to echoes in hollow rocks and valleys.^[2] The singular is found from Gellius and Apuleius on.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of verbal trickery.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of cleverness of expression and of gesture.^[2][5]
• c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD – Phaedrus uses it of jests.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of refinement in works of art.^[2][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses the singular.^[2][3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (usually plural) Cleverness in the use of words, adroitness of expression, wit.^[2][1]
2. (plural) Expressive gestures.^[2]
3. Verbal trickery, sophistry.^[2][1]
4. (plural) Jests, pleasantries.^[2]
5. Refinement, liveliness (in art).^[2]

Word family

• argutiola

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 l m n o p q r s t Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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 f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de