diligens

Forms

dīligēns (genitive dīligentis); third declension; comparative dīligentior, superlative dīligentissimus^[1]

Etymology

It is the present participle of dīligō (“to value, love”) used as an adjective.^[1][2][3] The verb is formed from dis- (“apart”) and legō (“to choose, gather”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to collect”), cognate with Ancient Greek λέγω (légō, “to gather; to speak”).^[1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Amphitruo: Alcmena is dīligentem ut uxōrem decet, “careful, as a wife should be”.^[1][3]

Semantic evolution

It is careful, attentive, diligent or scrupulous; it is also thrifty or economical: the Rhetorica ad Herennium warns against calling a wasteful spendthrift sparing and careful.^[1] With a genitive it is fond of or devoted to, as Cicero says every nature loves itself.^[1] Church Latin glosses it “diligent, careful”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a careful wife.^[1][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero in the sense “fond of”.^[1][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Careful, attentive, diligent, scrupulous.^[1][5]
2. Thrifty, economical.^[1]
3. (with genitive) Fond of, devoted to.^[1]

Related words

• dīligō
• dīligentia
• legō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson