Etymologically
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degener

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈdeː.ɡɛ.nɛr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈdɛː.d͡ʒe.ner][1]

Forms

dēgener (genitive dēgeneris); third-declension one-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

The OLD and the TLL take it as a back-formation from Latin dēgenerō (“to degenerate”).[2][3] Lewis & Short and Wiktionary instead form it from dē- and genus (“race, kind”), and Priscian from the word for family.[4][1][3] De Vaan traces genus to Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁-o/es- (“race, offspring”), from the root of gignō (“to beget”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Virgil,[6] in whose Aeneid fear proves souls low-born.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means of inferior stock or low-born, and of animals and plants of an inferior breed, as Columella's common, low-bred ass.[2] Most often it is less worthy than one's ancestors, degenerate: in Virgil a speaker bids Achilles be told that his son Neoptolemus is degenerate.[2][4] With a genitive it means unworthy of, as Ovid's young man not unworthy of his father's eloquence.[2] It is also soft or weak, as Seneca's degenerate bull that does not lead the herd, and of acts ignoble or contemptible.[2] Lewis & Short note that it is mostly poetic and post-Augustan, frequent in Pliny and Tacitus.[4] Church Latin glosses it ignoble, unworthy.[7]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of fear and of a degenerate son.[2][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a son not unworthy of his father.[2][6]
  • 1st century AD – Columella of a low-bred ass.[2][6]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of a degenerate bull.[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of inferior stock, low-born; of animals and plants, of an inferior breed.[2][1]
  2. Less worthy than one's ancestors, degenerate; with a genitive, unworthy of.[2][4][1]
  3. Soft, weak; fallen from former standards.[2]
  4. Of actions, contemptible, ignoble.[2][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson