attractivus

Forms

attractīvus (feminine attractīva, neuter attractīvum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It is also spelled adtractīvus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin attrahō (“to draw towards”) + -īvus, made on the past participle ⟨attractus⟩.^[1][3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Cassiodorus, who calls the first part of the soul attractīva, taking from nature what it feels it needs, and in a letter speaks of an attractive power.^[3][2][4]

Semantic evolution

Medieval natural philosophy made it a technical term: Alfanus lists an attractive power among the four natural powers of nourishment, rendering Greek ἑλκτικός (helktikós), and Albertus Magnus places such a power in the liver.^[5] It was used of the drawing power of a magnet and in medicine of drawing out matter; as a neuter noun it meant a poultice that draws.^[5] Niermeyer glosses it “attrahent”.^[6]

Neo-Latin authors kept these senses: Boccaccio uses it of a power of desire and attraction, and Campanella of a drawing remedy.^[7] It is the source of French attractif and German attraktiv.^[4] Modern Latin also uses it for “interesting, attractive”.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus uses it of a part of the soul.^[3][2][4]
• mid 11th century – Alfanus uses it of a natural power.^[5][4]
• 13th century – Albertus Magnus places an attractive power in the liver.^[5][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Late Latin) Drawing to itself, attractive: virtus attractīva, the power of attraction.^[3][2][6][5]
2. (Medieval Latin, medicine) Drawing out (matter).^[5]
3. (New Latin) Interesting, attractive.^[1]

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin, neuter) A drawing plaster or remedy.^[5][7]

Related words

• attractiō
• English attractive

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de