Etymologically
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capacitas

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [kaˈpaː.kɪ.taːs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [kaˈpaː.t͡ʃi.tas][1]

Forms

capācitās f (genitive capācitātis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from capāx “roomy, able to hold” with the suffix -tās.[2][1][3][4] The TLL suggests Cicero may have coined it.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL and Lewis and Short cite Cicero's question whether there is a capacity in the mind into which things are poured.[3][5][6] Köbler dates Cicero 81–43 BC.[7]

Semantic evolution

It meant the ability to hold, capacity, size, as in Cicero, Vitruvius and Columella, a word Lewis and Short call rare.[2][5][6] In Pliny the Elder it meant capacity for food, and it also meant power of comprehension.[2] In Gaius it meant in law the capacity to inherit.[2]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant capacity, capability.[8] Medieval Latin used it for legal ability and mental capacity.[9] It survives in Italian capacità and French capacité, and Old French gave English capacity in the early 15th century, “ability to contain”.[1][4]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the mind's capacity.[3][5][7]
  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of size.[2][7]
  • 140–180 AD – Gaius uses it of capacity to inherit.[2][7]
  • early 15th century – English capacity is recorded.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Capacity, size; capacity for food; power of comprehension.[2]
  2. (law) Capacity to inherit.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill