Etymologically
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enormis

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [eːˈnoːr.mɪs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [eˈnɔr.mis][1]

Forms

ēnōrmis (neuter ēnōrme); third-declension two-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

It is formed from ex- and norma “carpenter's square, rule” with the adjective ending -is.[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short call it post-Augustan.[4] Quintilian uses it of an ill-fitting toga.[4][5] Köbler dates Quintilian c. 35–95/96 AD.[6]

Semantic evolution

It first meant out of rule, irregular or shapeless, as Tacitus' irregular streets of old Rome and Gellius' metrically irregular verse.[2][7] Far more often it meant abnormally large, immense, as Pliny's enormous shade of trees, Statius' huge colossus and Tacitus' huge spears and swords.[2][7][4]

In medieval Latin it meant immoral, wicked, heinous.[8] English enormous was formed from it in the 1530s, first meaning “abnormal”.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of an ill-fitting toga.[4][6]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of huge shade.[2][6]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of irregular streets and huge weapons.[7][6]
  • 1530s – English enormous is formed from it.[9]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Irregular, shapeless, (of clothes) ill-fitting, (of verse) irregular.[2][1]
  2. Enormous, immense, huge.[2][1]
  3. (Medieval Latin) Wicked, heinous.[8]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com