experiens

Forms

experiēns (genitive experientis, comparative experientior, superlative experientissimus); third-declension adjective of one termination^[1][2]

Etymology

It is the present participle of experior (“to try, put to the test”), used as an adjective.^[1][3][4] Wiktionary derives that verb from ex- and pariō (“to bring forth”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[4] who in the Verrines calls a farmer most enterprising and most careful: experientissimus ac dīligentissimus arātor.^[1][6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it means enterprising, active, of a person who dares and does things:^[1][6] Cicero also calls a man ready and enterprising, and Livy pairs it with ācer, keen.^[2][6] Ovid uses it of love as enterprising, the opposite of idleness, and with a genitive in the line inde genus dūrum sumus experiēnsque labōrum, “so we are a hardy race, used to toil”.^[1][2]

The TLL dates the comparative from Augustine and Isidore of Seville and the superlative from Cicero, and notes the adverb experienter.^[6] In later Latin it took the sense experienced, skilled: Augustine says that someone came away more experienced and better instructed, and the Vulgate calls a man most experienced in matters of war.^[2] The Latin panegyrics use the superlative of experienced generals.^[6][2]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of an enterprising farmer.^[1][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy pairs it with ācer, keen.^[1][2][4]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of love and, with a genitive, of a race used to toil.^[1][4]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses the comparative in the sense “more experienced”.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Enterprising, active, energetic.^[1][2]
2. With a genitive: inured to, used to (toil).^[2][1]
3. (Late Latin) Experienced, skilled (in).^[2][6]

References

1. ^ 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
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
6. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften