etiamnum

Forms

etiamnum (not comparable)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin etiam (“also, even”) + num (“now”), written as one word.^[2][1][3] The commoner form etiamnunc has nunc (“now”) in place of the older num.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[2][5] meaning “even now, still”: in the Menaechmi a character says that hope etiamnum delights his mind.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense is that a state continues up to the time spoken of, “still, yet”;^[2][4] Varro uses it of a point in the past (when a plane tree was etiamnunc young).^[2] Plautus also uses it with an imperative for an action to be repeated, “yet more, again”.^[2] With weakened time reference it means “still, yet” of something not yet settled, as in Cicero's quaeritur etiamnunc, “it is still asked”, and in Pomponius Mela it continues a list of places.^[2][6] Gaffiot also gives the sense “further, besides”.^[7]

Lewis and Short note that the form in ⟨-nunc⟩ is the more frequent and the only one in Cicero and Caesar.^[4] In Ecclesiastical Latin it still means “still, yet”.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for “still” and, with an imperative, for “again”.^[2][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a time in the past.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the form etiamnunc.^[4][7][5]
• 43/44 AD – Pomponius Mela uses it in a list of places.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Even now, still, yet; also with reference to a past or future time.^[2][4]
2. Yet more, again (with an imperative, of a repeated action).^[2]
3. Still, yet (of something not yet complete or settled).^[2][6]
4. Further, besides.^[7]

Usage notes

The form etiamnunc is often written as two words, etiam nunc, and etiamnum likewise as etiam num.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson