efficacia

Forms

efficācia f (genitive efficāciae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin efficāx + -ia, from efficāx (“effective, efficacious”),^[2][3] itself from efficiō (“to bring about, accomplish”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pliny the Elder (23/24–79 AD) is the first to use it, for effectiveness or efficacy;^[5][6] the TLL notes that apart from this passage it is found only from the age of the Antonines.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it meant effectiveness or efficiency.^[2][5] From the 2nd century on it also named the energy and drive of people who get things done, as in Ulpian, who wants a collector of debts to be not harsh but kind, with efficacia.^[3] Late writers used it in the plural, and Rufinus used it, beside efficientia, for what the Greeks called ἐνέργεια, as against mere possibility.^[3]

Christian Latin used it for efficacy, power and influence;^[7] medieval writers for a person's energy, zeal and ability,^[8][9] and Alcuin warns his readers lest they fail in their efficacia.^[9] English borrowed it as efficacy in the 1520s.^[4]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for effectiveness.^[5][6]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian has it in the plural.^[3][6]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian uses it of a person's energy in exacting payment.^[3][6]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus uses it.^[5][6]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it.^[3][6]
• 1520s – English borrows it as efficacy.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Effectiveness, efficacy, efficiency.^[2][5][10]
2. Energy, vigour and ability in getting things done.^[3][8][9]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Power, influence.^[7]

Related words

• efficientia
• English efficacy

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f 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
8. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b c 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. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn