exitiabilis

Forms

exitiābilis (neuter exitiābile); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin exitium (“destruction, ruin”) + -ābilis.^[1][2][3] The noun exitium is from exeō (“to go out”),^[4] a compound of eō¹ (“to go”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁ei- (“to go”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus is the first author:^[4] in the Epidicus a character threatens to make this a fatal day for someone, exitiābilem … hunc diem.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

It meant bringing death or destruction, deadly;^[2][6] Lewis and Short call it rare but classical.^[2][6] Cicero uses it of a war ruinous to its own citizens, Livy of the outcome of prodigies and of a tyrant, Virgil of a crime and Ovid of a weapon.^[6][7][8] Of persons it meant pernicious, in Velleius and Tacitus.^[2] The adverb exitiābiliter occurs in Augustine.^[8] A glossary explains that it is said both of a man who brings ruin to another and of a place where ruin can happen, such as a pit.^[3]

Medieval writers kept the classical sense: Jonas of Bobbio speaks of desiring the ruinous life of the world,^[9] and Bede of the poison of the Arian heresy.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a fatal day.^[6][7][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a ruinous war.^[6][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of a destructive tyrant.^[2][4]
• c. 20 BC–30 AD – Velleius uses it of pernicious men.^[2][4]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of a disease and of a mind hostile to its own.^[2][8][4]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses the adverb exitiābiliter.^[8][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Destructive, deadly, fatal.^[2][6][8]
2. (of persons) Bringing ruin, pernicious.^[2]

Related words

• exitium
• exitiālis

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b 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 h 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 c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ 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