audentia

Forms

audentia f (genitive audentiae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin audēns (“bold, daring”) + -ia,^[2][1][3] from the present participle of audeō (“to dare”).^[3][4] De Vaan derives that verb from avidus (“greedy”), so that it first meant “to want very much” and only later “to dare”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Quintilian has it first,^[6][3] in the preface to his twelfth book, where he says that it shows a safer kind of daring to make an attempt.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it a rare word of the post-Augustan period, used in a good sense.^[7] Tacitus uses it several times: of a custom first adopted rarely and by individual daring, and of Drusus Germanicus, who did not lack boldness but was stopped by the Ocean.^[7][3] Pliny the Younger applies it to boldness or licence in the use of words, asking why his addressee should not be allowed the freedom granted to Homer.^[2][7]

Later it appears in an edict of Diocletian and in Sidonius Apollinaris,^[3] and British medieval writers kept the sense of daring and courage.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it in the preface to his twelfth book.^[3][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it in the Germania and the Annals.^[7][3][6]
• c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius Apollinaris speaks of boldness in conversation.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Daring, boldness, spirit (in a good sense).^[2][7]
2. Boldness or licence of expression.^[2][7][9]

Usage notes

The grammarian Nonius distinguished it from audācia: audācia belongs to rashness, audentia to courage.^[7][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn