benevolentia

Forms

benevolentia f (genitive benevolentiae); first declension^[1] It is also spelled benivolentia;^[2][3] the glosses have bonivolentia.^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from benevolēns (“well-wishing”) with the suffix -ia.^[2][3][1] The participle joins bene (“well”) and volō (“to wish, want”),^[4] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *wel- and Proto-Indo-European *uelh₁- (“to choose, wish”), cognate with Sanskrit वृणीते (vr̥ṇīté, “chooses, prefers”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Cicero as its first author.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It is goodwill, benevolence, kindness, favour and friendship;^[2][7][1] Lewis and Short find it most often in Cicero, especially in the Laelius and De officiis, and separate it from amor, from which friendship springs.^[7] Döderlein compares it with studium, the attachment of a lower to a higher person, such as a soldier to his general.^[8]

Church Latin keeps it as “goodwill, benevolence”,^[9] and Köbler finds it in Bede and the councils.^[6] English benevolence (about 1400) is from it, through Old French and directly.^[4]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero.^[6][7]
• first third of the 8th century – Bede.^[6]
• c. 1400 – English benevolence is from it.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Goodwill, benevolence, kindness, friendliness.^[2][7][1][9]
2. Favour, friendship.^[7]

Related words

• benevolēns
• benevolus
• malevolentia
• volō
• English benevolence

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson