ethicus

Forms

ēthicus (feminine ēthica, neuter ēthicum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Prudentius scans it with a short first syllable, ĕthĭcīs.^[2][3] Late spellings include aethicus and eticus.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἠθικός (ēthikós, “moral, expressing character”),^[4][2] from ἦθος (êthos, “character, custom”).^[1][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Seneca the Elder on,^[3] who reports that Naso seldom declaimed controversiae, and only those that portrayed character (non nisi ethicas).^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

The sense “portraying character” belonged to rhetoric; in the sense “moral, belonging to ethics” Gellius uses res ethica for moral philosophy,^[2][8][9] and Quintilian has it in a passage where it is a conjecture.^[4] The adverb ēthicōs (“in a way that expresses character”) is in Seneca the Elder.^[2][8] It occurs only once in poetry.^[3] Glossaries explain ethica as moral teaching about conduct.^[3]

In medieval Latin it meant concerned with moral philosophy,^[10][11] and as a noun a moral philosopher, especially Aristotle, or a classical author quoted for his moral sayings, as John of Salisbury calls Horace and Cicero.^[10] The feminine ethica passed through Old French into English as ethic.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 55 BC–40 AD – Seneca the Elder uses it of declamations that portray character.^[4][3][5]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian is credited with it by conjecture in the sense “moral”.^[4][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius calls moral philosophy res ethica.^[2][9][5]
• c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius Apollinaris writes of dictio ethica, diction that shows character.^[2][5]
• c. 1160 – John of Salisbury uses ethicus as a noun for a moralist.^[10][5]
• late 14th century – English borrows the noun ethik, moral philosophy, through Old French.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Belonging to morals, ethical.^[4][2][11]
2. (rhetoric) Portraying character, psychological.^[4][7]

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) A moral philosopher;^[10] Aristotle; a classical author quoted on morals.^[10]

Related words

• English ethic
• English ethics

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ a b c d e 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
11. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson