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exiguus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛkˈsɪ.ɡu.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eɡˈziː.ɡu.us][1]

Forms

exiguus (feminine exigua, neuter exiguum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin exigō (“to weigh out, demand”) + -uus, like contiguus from contingō;[2][3][1] L&S explain the first meaning as “weighed, exact”, hence “scanty”.[2][3][1] exigō is from ex- and agō (“to drive”), which de Vaan derives from Proto-Italic *ag-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-e/o- (“to drive, lead”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,[5] who says Latin writings are confined suīs fīnibus exiguīs sānē, “to their own boundaries, which are small indeed”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Exiguus is “small” in size, “scanty” in amount (Cicero: rēs familiāris … valdē exigua est, “my means are very slender”), and of time “short, brief”.[2][3][1] Of sounds it is “faint, feeble” (Virgil of the ghosts: pars tollere vōcem exiguam, “some raised a faint cry”), and of things such as praise or comfort “meagre, slight”; it also means “trivial” and of the mind “petty”.[2][1] Wiktionary records the sense “strict, exact”, and as a noun “a poor man”.[1]

Church Latin glosses it “little, scanty, small, short, poor”,[6] and in Medieval Latin it is also “humble”.[7] English exiguous comes from it in the 1650s.[8]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero: fīnibus exiguīs.[2][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil: pars tollere vōcem exiguam.[2][5]
  • 1650s – English exiguous.[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. small, scanty (in size or amount).[2][3][1][6]
  2. Short, brief (of time).[2][6]
  3. Faint, feeble (of sounds).[2]
  4. meagre, slight; trivial, petty.[2][1]
  5. Strict, exact.[1]
  6. (Medieval Latin) Humble.[7]

Noun

  1. A poor man.[1]

Word family

  • exiguitās
  • exiguum
  • perexiguus
  • exiguē
  • exiguō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com