asperitas

Forms

asperitās f (genitive asperitātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin asper (“rough”) + -tās.^[2][3][1] The origin of asper is uncertain: a derivation from ⟨*ab-sper-o-⟩ “repulsive” is unsupported, and Melchert proposes a root Proto-Indo-European *h₂esp- (“to cut”), seen in Cuneiform Luwian hašp- (“to cut down”) and Ancient Greek ἀσπίς (aspís, “shield”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Varro,^[5] who speaks of the steepness and roughness of mountains.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is roughness to the touch, as in Vitruvius, sharpness, as in Cicero's sphere that can have nothing jagged about it, and the ruggedness of ground.^[2][6] Cicero also uses it of harsh sound and of the sharpness of pain, Pliny the Elder of harsh taste and of the fierceness of animals, and Ovid of the severity of cold.^[2] Of people and style it is coarseness, as Horace's boorish roughness, or harshness and severity, as Cicero's “without this courtroom harshness”.^[2][6] Sallust has it of the difficulty of a war.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “roughness, sharpness, harshness, severity”.^[7]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro of rugged mountains.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of harsh sounds, of pain and of severity in court.^[2][5]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust of the difficulty of a war.^[2][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of rough surfaces.^[2][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of boorish roughness.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Roughness, unevenness; a rough place; ruggedness of ground.^[2][6][1]
2. Sharpness, jaggedness.^[2]
3. Harshness of sound or taste; of water, saltness.^[2][6][1]
4. Coarseness, lack of polish.^[2][6]
5. Fierceness, violence; violent feeling.^[2][6]
6. Severity, sternness, harshness of manner, asperity.^[2][6][1]
7. Sharpness of pain; inclemency of weather.^[2][6]
8. Difficulty, hardness.^[2][6]

Related words

• asper
• exasperō

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson