Etymologically
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diuturnus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [di.uːˈtʊr.nʊs], [di.ʊˈtʊr.nʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [di.uˈtur.nus][1]

Forms

diū̆turnus (feminine diū̆turna, neuter diū̆turnum, comparative diū̆turnior); first/second-declension adjective[1] Ovid scans the second syllable short (diŭturnus).[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from diū (“for a long time”) with the suffix -urnus.[4][1][5] The TLL compares diūtius (“longer”) and diurnus (“daily”).[3] De Vaan explains ⟨diū⟩ as an old case form of the word for “day”, from Proto-Italic *diwos (“of the day”) and Proto-Indo-European *di-eu- (“day, sky”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Cicero as its first author,[5] who asks what anyone who knows what is eternal can think lasting in human affairs.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is lasting a long time, not ephemeral, as Cicero's rule that lasting goods are preferred to brief ones; of things it is durable, as Varro's stake, and of persons continuing long in the same state, as Cicero's state that should be neither without a king nor under one king for long.[4][2] It is also long-standing or chronic, as Cicero's “not recent but old and long-standing infamy”.[4]

In medieval Latin it was also confused with diurnus and means “daily”.[7] Church Latin glosses it “of long duration, lasting”.[8]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of what lasts long and of long-standing infamy.[4][5]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro of a durable stake.[4][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Lasting, of long duration, permanent, (of things) durable.[4][1][2]
  2. Long-standing, chronic.[4]
  3. (Medieval Latin) Daily.[7]

Word family

  • diūturnitās
  • perdiūturnus

Usage notes

Döderlein says that diū and dūdum denote a space of time, diū of many days or years, dūdum of minutes or hours, while prīdem marks a point of time long before.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon 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 e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper