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etiamsi

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word etiamsi

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Latin (etiam,sī)

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛ.tiˈãː.siː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [et.t͡siˈam.si][1]

Forms

etiamsī [1] It is also written separately, etiam sī.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from etiam (“also, even”) and sī (“if”),[2][4] matching Ancient Greek καὶ εἰ (kaì ei, “even if”).[3] The adverb ⟨etiam⟩ is a compound of et and iam (“now”);[4] de Vaan traces ⟨et⟩ to Proto-Italic *eti and Proto-Indo-European *h₁eti (“still, also”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short quote it from Plautus with the indicative, “even if as much again has to be lost”, and with the subjunctive;[3] Köbler gives Cicero.[4]

Semantic evolution

It is a concessive conjunction, even if or even though, more emphatic than etsī, with the indicative or the subjunctive, and often answered by tamen “yet”, as in Cicero's “that truth, even if it is not pleasant, is still welcome to me”.[3][2] From Livy on it also qualifies single words, as Livy's “the consul's anger, even if just”.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “even if, although”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus with the indicative and the subjunctive.[3][4]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence of a doubt that is now gone.[3][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, answered by tamen.[3][4]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy with a single adjective.[2][4]

Meanings

Conjunction

  1. Even if, even though, although, albeit.[2][3][1][6]
  2. With single words, even if, though.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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 g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Cite this entry

“Etiamsi.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/etiamsi. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·