Etymologically
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eminus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈeː.mɪ.nʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɛː.mi.nus][1]

Forms

ēminus (not comparable)[1]

Etymology

It is formed from ex- (“out of, away from”) and manus (“hand”),[2][1][3] literally “hands apart”, the opposite of comminus (“hand to hand”).[4][5] De Vaan derives the noun from Proto-Italic *man-u- and Proto-Indo-European *mon-u- (“hand”), cognate with Oscan manim (“hand”) and Old Norse mund (“hand”), and sees ⟨-manus⟩ in both adverbs.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Naevius,[3] de Vaan from the historian Sisenna.[6] It is a military term for fighting at a distance with missiles rather than hand to hand.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Besides fighting at long range, a spear's throw away, it is used outside war for “from a distance”, as Lucretius' things that catch fire from the heat before the flame touches them, and Ovid's plea for help from afar.[2][4] Church Latin glosses it “at a distance”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 235–200 BC – First recorded in Naevius.[3]
  • 120–67 BC – In Sisenna.[6][3]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of things that catch fire from a distance.[2][3]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of help from afar.[2][3]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. At long range, with missiles, not hand to hand.[2][4][1]
  2. From a distance, from afar.[2][1][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson