Etymologically
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elegantia

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [eː.ɫɛˈɡan.ti.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [e.leˈɡan.t͡si.a][1]

Forms

ēlegantia f (genitive ēlegantiae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ēlegāns (“tasteful, refined”) + -ia.[2][1][3] De Vaan explains ēlegāns from a verb *ex-legāre, alone among the compounds of legō (“to collect, choose”) in having that form, and traces legō to Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to collect”), comparing Ancient Greek λέγω (légō, “to collect, count; speak”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, of a man's fastidiousness: a woman fears that he will scorn her looks as soon as he sees her.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The early sense of choosiness is rare; far more often it is refinement of taste and manners, as Terence's Attic elegance.[5][2] Cicero uses it of correct, scrupulous conduct and of the elegance of public games.[2] In rhetoric it is skill in choosing words: the Rhetorica ad Herennium defines it as what makes each point seem said purely and clearly.[2] Pliny the Elder uses it of the refinement of an artist.[2] Some manuscripts spell it ⟨elig-⟩, and the grammarians treat it as a word used only in the singular, though Vitruvius has a plural.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of fastidiousness.[2][6]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of Attic elegance.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of correct conduct and refinement.[2][6]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of an artist's refinement.[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Fastidiousness, choosiness.[2][5]
  2. Refinement of taste or manners, taste, propriety; correctness of conduct.[2][5][1]
  3. Elegance, grace of appearance.[2][1]
  4. Good taste in the choice of words and ideas; in other arts, refinement.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de