exitiosus

Forms

exitiōsus (feminine exitiōsa, neuter exitiōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It is also spelled exsitiōsus.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin exitium (“destruction”) + -ōsus.^[3][1] exitium comes from exeō (“to go out”), a compound of eō (“to go”),^[4] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *ei- (“to go”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁ei- (“to go”).^[5] Isidore explained the word as “that which is destruction to many”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and Lewis & Short find it first in Cicero, who uses it of the Catilinarian conspiracy.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

It means causing death or destruction, pernicious, deadly.^[3][1] Lewis & Short call it rare but classical: Cicero speaks of a ruinous conspiracy and of a slaughter that would have been fatal to the state.^[6] An ancient list of synonyms groups it with perīculōsus, pestifer and perniciōsus.^[2]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a deadly conspiracy.^[6][4]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains the word.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Destructive, pernicious, deadly, ruinous.^[3][6][1]

Related words

• exitium
• exitiālis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c 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. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press