Etymologically
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forensis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [fɔˈrẽː.sɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [foˈrɛn.sis][1]

Forms

forēnsis (neuter forēnse); third-declension two-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin forum (“marketplace, forum”) + -ēnsis.[2][1][3] The noun forum goes back to Proto-Italic *fworom and Proto-Indo-European *dʰwor-o- (“room near the door”), from the word for a door; the meaning developed from the area before the doors to a public space.[4] Cognate with Umbrian furo (“forum”), Sanskrit द्वार (dvā́ra-, “door, gate”) and Lithuanian dvãras (“estate, court”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro,[4] who says that the dignity of the forum grew when the butchers' shops were turned into bankers' offices.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means of or belonging to the forum, and Pliny the Elder names a kind of grape sold in the market forensis.[2] Above all it is connected with the law courts, forensic, as Cicero's Isocrates, a great orator who lacked the light of the courts; as a noun it is a pleader or advocate.[2][5] It also means public as opposed to private, and of dress worn on public occasions, as Livy's Hannibal leaving the city in his everyday public clothes.[2] Velius Longus reports that Cicero liked to say ⟨foresia⟩ without the ⟨n⟩.[3]

In Late and medieval Latin it is applied to secular as opposed to church law, and to laymen.[6][1] Church Latin glosses it “legal, forensic, public, of the marketplace”.[7]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro of the forum.[2][4][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of the law courts and of public life.[2][8]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of public dress.[2][8]
  • Middle Ages – Of secular law.[6]
  • 1650s – Its stem gives English forensic.[9]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of the forum or market.[2][5][1]
  2. Of the law courts, forensic; as a noun, an advocate.[2][5][1]
  3. Public, not domestic; of dress, worn in public.[2][1]
  4. (Medieval Latin) Of secular law; lay.[6][1]

Usage notes

In Apuleius it apparently means “foreign”, as if from forīs “outside”, and medieval texts have a separate forensis from forīs meaning “from outside, foreign”, as a priest from another diocese.[2][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com