calamitosus

Forms

calamitōsus (feminine calamitōsa, neuter calamitōsum, comparative calamitōsior, superlative calamitōsissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin calamitās (“loss, disaster”) + -ōsus.^[2][1][3] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of ⟨calamitās⟩, which he takes from an adjective Proto-Italic *kalamo- (“damaged”), perhaps Proto-Indo-European *kl̥h₂-em-o- (“beaten, damaged”); the same adjective, negated, is in incolumis (“unharmed, safe”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Cato,^[4][5] who uses it of land and of people exposed to damage: a farm should have a good climate “so that it is not liable to disaster”, and the trader, though energetic, is said to lead a risky life “liable to ruin”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Cicero it is mostly “stricken by disaster, wretched”, as in “miserable and ruined men”, and as a noun “the unfortunate”, whom an advocate defends.^[2] The active sense “ruinous, calamitous” is also Ciceronian: he says Verres swept through every part of the province like a destructive storm and plague.^[2][6] With a more passive sense Cicero says that it is a calamity to be stripped of one's goods, and a worse one with disgrace.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “calamitous”,^[7] and Köbler records it in a medieval Life of Bruno of Cologne (967–969).^[5] English took calamitous from French calamiteux, from this word, in the 1540s.^[8]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato of land and of traders exposed to disaster.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of wretched people and of a ruinous storm.^[2][5]
• 967–969 – Ruotger's Life of Bruno of Cologne.^[5]
• 1540s – English calamitous, through French.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Liable to damage or disaster: of land or crops, and of people exposed to ruin.^[2][6]
2. Stricken by disaster, wretched, unfortunate; as a noun, an unfortunate person.^[2]
3. Ruinous, destructive, calamitous.^[2][6][1][7]

Related words

• calamitās
• incolumis
• English calamitous

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. ^ a b 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com