egens

Forms

egēns (genitive egentis, comparative egentior, superlative egentissimus); third-declension one-termination adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

It is the present participle of egeō (“to lack, need”), used as an adjective.^[1][2][3] De Vaan traces ⟨egeō⟩ to Proto-Italic *egē- (“to lack”), beside an s-stem noun Proto-Indo-European *h₁eǵ-es- (“lack, need”), cognate with Old Norse ekla (“lack”).^[4] Paul's epitome of Festus explained it as ⟨exgēns⟩, one who has not even a family (⟨gēns⟩) left.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds the comparative already in Plautus' Vidularia;^[5] Köbler gives Cicero as its first author.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is poor, needy, indigent, as Cicero's “nothing is poorer than that king”, and with the genitive in want of something (Cicero).^[1][2] Church Latin glosses it “needy”, and the Vulgate uses it of the poor.^[6][5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has the comparative.^[5][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the needy and of a poor king.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Needy, poor, indigent.^[1][2][6]
2. Lacking, in want (of), with the genitive.^[2]

Related words

• egeō
• egestās
• indigeō
• inops

References

1. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
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 c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson