extra

Forms

extrā (comparative exterius, no superlative)^[1] The archaic form extrād or exstrad occurs repeatedly in the decree on the Bacchanalia.^[2][3] The comparative adverb is exterius.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is contracted from ⟨*exterā (parte)⟩, “on the outer side”, the ablative feminine of exter (“outer”).^[2][3][1] Compare Oscan ehtrad (“outside”).^[2] exter is from ex (“out of”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰs (“out”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus.^[5] Ennius has occumbunt multī lētum … aut intrā mūrōs aut extrā, “many meet their death, within the walls or outside”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

As an adverb extrā is “outside” (Cicero: some goods are in the body, some outside it), “outwards”, “from outside”, and in Seneca “besides, in addition”;^[2][3][1] extrā quam (sī) is “except, unless”.^[2][3][1] As a preposition with the accusative it is “outside, beyond” (extrā ōrdinem, extrā fīnēs), “not belonging to” a class (Cicero: the most eloquent man outside our order), “beyond the reach of, free from” (extrā perīculum), and “except, apart from”.^[2][1][6]

In Church Latin it is also “without, besides”, and it forms terms such as extrāsacrāmentālis.^[6] Etymonline notes that as a prefix extrā- is classical only in extraordinārius but became common in Medieval Latin and modern formations, the source of English extra-.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[5]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius: aut intrā mūrōs aut extrā.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of persons outside the senatorial order.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. outside, on the outside; outwards; from outside.^[2][3][1][6]
2. Besides, in addition.^[2]
3. extrā quam (sī): except, unless.^[2]

Preposition

1. Outside, beyond (with the accusative).^[2][3][1][6]
2. Not included in, outside (a class).^[2]
3. Beyond the reach of, free from.^[2]
4. except, apart from; without.^[2][6]

Word family

• extrāneus
• extrārius

Related words

• exter
• ex
• intrā
• extrēmus
• English extra-

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com