exsecrabilis

Forms

exsecrābilis (neuter exsecrābile); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1] It is also spelled execrābilis.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin exsecror (“to curse”) + -bilis.^[2][4] The verb is formed from ex- and sacer (“sacred; accursed”),^[1] which goes back to Proto-Italic *sakro- (“sacred”) and Proto-Indo-European *sh₂k-ro- (“sacred”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is from a tragedy of Accius, of a tyrant's cruel and accursed nature.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Livy people complain of their accursed fortune, and it has an active sense, “of cursing”: the priests lead a carmen exsecrabile, a song of execration, and Livy speaks of a hatred of the Romans that amounts to execration.^[2][3] Valerius Maximus calls a place accursed and dire, Pliny the Elder finds no animal more detestable than one he describes, and the Vulgate uses it in Leviticus.^[2][3] Augustine has the comparative adverb exsecrabilius.^[3]

In medieval British Latin it keeps the sense “execrable, hateful”; 14th-century sources also use it as the name of a papal constitution beginning with the word Execrabilis.^[6] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means abhorrent, detestable or accursed.^[7]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius uses it of a tyrant's nature.^[2][8]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of fortune and of a song of execration.^[2][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of an animal.^[2][8]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it in Leviticus.^[3][8]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses the comparative adverb.^[3][8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Accursed, detestable, execrable.^[2][3]
2. Of cursing, uttering curses;^[2][3] (of hatred) amounting to execration.^[2][3]
3. (Medieval Latin) Execrabilis, the name of a papal constitution.^[6]

Word family

• exsecrābilitās

Related words

• exsecror
• sacer

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 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
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de