Etymologically
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ex

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈɛks][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈɛɡz], [ˈɛks][1]

Forms

ex (+ ablative)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *eks, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eǵʰs (“out”).[2][1] Before voiced consonants it became ⟨ē⟩ (from ⟨*egz⟩), and in compounds before ⟨f⟩ it appears as ⟨ec-⟩, often assimilated to ⟨ef-⟩.[2][3] The Sabellic languages continue the variant without /s/, *h₁eǵʰ.[2]

Cognate with Oscan eh and Umbrian ehe, Ancient Greek ἐξ (ex), Old Irish ess-, Lithuanian ìš and Old Church Slavonic из (iz).[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found in the Twelve Tables and in Livius Andronicus.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is movement out of a place, a group or a state (“out of, from”), then the point from which something is done, origin and material (“made of”), the source of a feeling or of information, cause (“because of”), conformity (ex lēge “according to the law”), and time (“since, directly after”).[3][1][5] Ex stands before vowels and consonants, ē only before consonants, and set phrases tend to keep one form (ex parte, ē regiōne).[3][5]

In inscriptions ex with the name of an office means a former holder of it.[1] Medieval writers use ex parte for “as to, regarding”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 450 BC – Used in the Twelve Tables.[2][4]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: ē fānō ēgreditur “she comes out of the temple”.[3][4]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato speaks of recovering ex eō morbō, from that illness.[3][4]

Meanings

Preposition

  1. (with ablative) out of, from (a place, group or state).[3][5]
  2. Down from; off (the surface of).[3][1]
  3. From, on (the point from which something is done).[3][1]
  4. Of, made of (a material).[1][5]
  5. Because of, as a result of.[1][5]
  6. According to, in keeping with: ex lēge, by law.[1][5]
  7. Since, directly after (a time).[1]
  8. (with the name of an office) Former, ex-.[1]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill