durabilitas

Forms

dūrābilitās f (genitive dūrābilitātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dūrābilis (“lasting”) + -tās.^[2][3][4] dūrābilis comes from dūrō (“to harden; to last”), from dūrus (“hard”);^[5] de Vaan notes that the meaning of the verb must have moved from “be hard” to “endure, last”.^[6] The adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *dūro- and Proto-Indo-European *du(e)h₂-ro- (“far, long”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler lists the Itala, after AD 220, among its first sources.^[7] The earliest dated passage in the TLL is a law of 341 in the Codex Theodosianus, under which possessions pass to the owners' descendants in lasting continuance.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The TLL divides its uses into the physical, hardness, firmness and good keeping, as in Palladius on storing grain, and the temporal, continuance.^[2][3] Medieval Latin used it for permanence, stability and durability,^[8][9] and British sources also for longevity.^[9] Hungarian charters speak of fleeting memory being made firm by the durability of writing.^[10]

Italian durabilità continues the Late Latin word,^[11] and English took durability from Old French and directly from Late Latin in the late 14th century.^[5]

Timeline

• 341 – A law in the Codex Theodosianus uses it for lasting continuance.^[2]
• end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century AD – Palladius uses it for the good keeping of grain.^[2][3][7]
• 13th century – Albertus Magnus uses it for permanence.^[8][7]
• 1278 – A Hungarian charter speaks of the durability of written records.^[10]
• late 14th century – English borrows it, partly through Old French, as durability.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Durability, firmness, good keeping (of material things).^[2][3][4]
2. Lasting continuance, duration.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) Permanence, stability.^[8][9]
4. (Medieval Latin) Longevity.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b 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 c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b c d 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
10. ^ a b Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
11. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier