exoticus
Pronunciation
Forms
exōticus (feminine exōtica, neuter exōticum); first/second-declension adjective[1]
Etymology
It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐξωτικός (exōtikós, “foreign”).[2][1][3] The Greek adjective comes from ἔξω (éxō, “outside”), from ἐξ (ex, “out of”),[4] so that it means literally “from the outside”.[5]
Earliest recorded meaning
Plautus is its first author: in the Mostellaria not everyone can smell of unguenta exōtica, imported perfumes, and in the Menaechmi he calls the Greek south of Italy, Magna Graecia, Graecia exōtica in jest.[6][7][2]
Semantic evolution
Lewis & Short call it ante- and post-classical.[7] Pliny the Elder reports a censors' edict that forbade the sale of exōtica, as the foreign perfumes were then called;[6] Gellius speaks of a foreign wine, Rhodian or Lesbian, as against Attic,[6][7] and Apuleius of fish in a foreign sauce, of a foreign tooth powder, and of foreign speech, for which the narrator of the Metamorphoses asks pardon.[6][7] Plautus also uses the neuter exōticum for a foreign garment.[7][8][2] Later Solinus writes of foreign trees,[6] and Isidore of Seville calls exōtica vestis clothing that comes from abroad.[6]
Medieval writers used it of foreign goods, ornaments and riches,[9][10] and it widened to “strange, unusual”, “improper” and even “estranged”;[9][10] in English sources it also meant barbarous or obscure, as of the outlandish words that Aldhelm used only rarely.[10] A glossary renders it “hateful”.[11][10] English exotic came in the 1590s, from French exotique and directly from the Latin word.[5]
Timeline
- c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of imported perfumes and of a foreign garment.[6][7][4]
- 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder reports a censors' edict against the sale of foreign perfumes.[6][4]
- c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of foreign speech.[6][4]
- c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of foreign wine.[6][4]
- c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains exōtica vestis as clothing from abroad.[6][4]
- 1590s – English borrows exotic.[5]
Meanings
Adjective
- Coming from overseas, foreign, imported.[2][7][8]
- Graecia exōtica: Magna Graecia, the Greek colonies of southern Italy (in Plautus).[2][7][8]
- (Medieval Latin) Strange, unusual, out of the ordinary.[9][10]
- (Medieval Latin) Improper, wrong.[9]
- (Medieval Latin, of words) Barbarous, obscure.[10]
Noun
Related words
- English exotic
References
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
- ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
- ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b c d e f 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
- ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
- ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.