enixe

Forms

ēnīxē (comparative ēnīxius, superlative ēnīxissimē)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ēnīxus (“strenuous”) with the adverb ending -ē.^[2][1] That adjective is the participle of ēnītor (“to struggle, strive”), a compound of ex- and nītor¹ (“to lean, strive”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *kniχw-et-.^[3] Sisenna has a parallel adverb, ēnīxim.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL and Conte find it first in Plautus' Trinummus, where a speaker says he wants a field left to someone ēnīxē, earnestly.^[4][5] Köbler's first author is Cicero.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Classical prose used it of zeal shown in a cause: Cicero says that all good men had taken up his cause ēnīxē,^[5][7] Caesar and Livy use it of helping or obeying with every effort,^[7] and Suetonius has the superlative.^[7] Church writers used the comparative with verbs of praying, to pray more earnestly.^[7]

The word continued in medieval Latin, where Aldhelm and later British writers use the comparative of earnest study and prayer.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Trinummus.^[4][5][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero says that good men had taken up his cause with zeal.^[5][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of obeying and helping with every effort.^[7][6]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius has the superlative ēnīxissimē.^[7][6]

Meanings

Adverb

1. With great effort, strenuously.^[2][7]
2. Earnestly, zealously, assiduously.^[2][9][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson