continentia

Forms

continentia f (genitive continentiae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from continēns (“self-restrained”), the present participle of contineō (“to hold together, restrain”), with the suffix -ia.^[2][3][4] De Vaan traces ⟨teneō⟩ to Proto-Italic *t(e)nē- (“to hold”) and Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”), cognate with Umbrian tenitu (“let him hold”), Sanskrit तनोति (tanóti, “stretches”) and Ancient Greek τείνω (teínō, “to stretch”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is Terence's Andria, “a great example of self-restraint”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its main sense is restraint of one's passions and appetites, self-control, often of abstinence from pleasures, money or women;^[2][3][6] Cicero defines it as the virtue by which desire is governed by reason.^[2][3][6] Suetonius uses it literally of holding back wind, in Claudius' edict permitting it at table.^[2][6] Jerome has the plural, of fasts and abstinences.^[3]

Church Latin glosses it “abstinence, restraint, self-denial”.^[7] In medieval sources it means chastity, and also context or connection, appurtenances, contents, and bearing or demeanour.^[8]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence of a youth's self-restraint.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero defines it as desire ruled by reason.^[3][4]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius of holding back wind.^[2][4]
• late 14th century – Borrowed through Old French into English as continence.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A holding back, repression.^[2][6]
2. Self-control, restraint; abstinence, continence.^[2][6][1][7]
3. (Medieval Latin) Chastity.^[8]
4. (Medieval Latin) Context, connection; appurtenances; contents; bearing, demeanour.^[8]

Related words

• contineō
• continēns
• English continence
• English countenance

Usage notes

The neuter plural continentia of the participle continēns means “neighbouring places, surroundings”.^[6][7]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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 e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com