Etymologically
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continentia

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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]

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