familiariter

Forms

familiāriter (not comparable)^[1] The comparative is familiārius and the superlative familiārissimē.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin familiāris (“of the household, intimate”) + -ter.^[2][3] De Vaan lists familiāris (from Plautus) with familia (“household”) among the derivatives of famulus (“servant”), which he traces to Proto-Italic *famelos (“slave”), comparing Oscan famel (“slave”).^[4] Following Rix, he takes the Proto-Italic noun as a back-formation from *famelia (“household”), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁-m-elo- (“fundament”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, in the Rudens: “you handle me too familiarly”; in the Menaechmi a stranger is greeted familiarly.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Its usual sense is in the manner of a close friend, intimately, on friendly terms: Cicero says nothing is more shameful than to make war on someone with whom one has lived on intimate terms.^[5][2] It also means with close knowledge, thoroughly, as when Seneca blames readers who apply themselves to no author closely, and Quintilian speaks of knowing a case intimately.^[2][5] Cicero uses it of feeling at home in a friend's villa.^[2] The grammarian Velius Longus uses it of what happens habitually, as when ⟨s⟩ commonly passes into ⟨r⟩.^[2] Church Latin glosses it in a familiar manner.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of handling someone too familiarly.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of intimate friendship.^[5][3]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca the Younger of close reading.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Familiarly, intimately, on friendly terms.^[2][5][6][1]
2. With close knowledge, thoroughly.^[2][5]
3. As if at home; habitually, commonly.^[2]

Related words

• familiāris
• familia
• familiāritās

References

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