dubiosus

Forms

dubiōsus (feminine dubiōsa, neuter dubiōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dubius (“doubtful”) + -ōsus.^[2][1][3] The TLL derives it from the noun dubium (“doubt”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Aulus Gellius is its first author.^[3][5] In the Attic Nights he says that Varro set apart twenty-one comedies of Plautus because they were not doubtful (quoniam dubiosae non erant),^[4][6] and elsewhere that the judges thought a point doubtful and impossible to resolve.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it post-classical;^[5] the classical word was dubius.^[8] In Medieval Latin it could mean “doubting, unbelieving”: Burchard of Worms says that the devil was deceitful and doubting from the beginning.^[9] Du Cange records it for “dangerous” in dubiosum mare, in statutes of the fishermen of Marseille,^[10] and for “doubtful” in a sermon that calls the rule of Basil rather doubtful.^[10] Hungarian sources use it for rights in doubt, for a book of doubtful authority, and for a forgotten debt.^[11] English took dubious from it in the 1540s,^[12] and it is the source of Italian dubbioso.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 165 AD – Aulus Gellius uses it of comedies of doubtful authorship.^[4][3]
• 1435 – A Hungarian decree speaks of rights fallen in and doubtful.^[11]
• 1461 – A verse in an English register uses it.^[13]
• 1540s – English dubious is recorded.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Open to doubt, doubtful, uncertain.^{[2][5][8][14]}
2. (Medieval Latin) Doubting, unbelieving.^[9][3]
3. (Medieval Latin) Dangerous, perilous.^[10]
4. (Medieval Latin) Of doubtful authority, apocryphal; forgotten.^[11]

Related words

• dubitō
• English dubious

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ VoLat: Vocabolario della Lingua Latina (2018), Milan: Hoepli
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ a b c du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
11. ^ a b c Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
14. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.