exitialis

Forms

exitiālis (neuter exitiāle); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin exitium (“destruction, death”) + -ālis.^[2][1][3] De Vaan lists exitium among the derivatives of eō¹ (“to go”), which he traces to Proto-Indo-European *h₁ei- (“to go”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it first in Lucretius;^[4] the OLD's earliest quotation is from Cicero's Verrines, perditae civitates hos solent exitus exitiales habere, “ruined states usually come to such deadly ends”.^[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

The OLD treats it as the same word in meaning as exitiābilis: destructive, fatal, deadly.^[2] Lewis and Short call it rare but classical.^[5] Lucretius speaks of deadly motions, and Virgil uses it of the fatal gift to Minerva and of a crime.^[2][7] Velleius has a deadly storm, Pliny the Elder deadly poisons and venomous animals, Livy a fatal letter, and Suetonius something held criminal and deadly.^[2][5][7] Medieval writers in Britain use it for death-dealing things: Honorius calls hell the exitialem lacum, and Gerald of Wales writes of the deadly end of tyrants.^[8]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it.^[4][2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of deadly ends of states.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil applies it to the fatal gift and to a crime.^[2][7][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of poisons.^[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Destructive, fatal, deadly.^[2][5][7]

Related words

• exitium
• exitiābilis

Usage notes

Its synonym exitiābilis is found from Plautus on.^[4][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 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 d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ 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