Etymologically
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extra

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈɛk.straː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈɛk.stra][1]

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

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