fortassis

Forms

fortāssis (not comparable)^[1]

Etymology

It is a by-form, from Latin fortasse (“perhaps”);^[2][1] compare magis.^[1] Priscian counted it among the adverbs derived from fors (“chance”).^[3]

De Vaan thinks that adverb seems to come from a phrase forte (“by chance”) + an + sīt, “by chance whether it be”, but finds the sound changes, especially the short final vowel, unclear;^[4] Köbler analyses it with ⟨sī vīs⟩, “if you will”, in place of the verb.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is recorded from Plautus on,^[4][5] meaning “perhaps”: fortassis tu auri dempsisti parum?, “perhaps you took off too little gold?”^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is used with the indicative and the subjunctive, and with the verb left out.^[2] Döderlein contrasts fortasse and fortassis, which affirm a possibility approaching probability and take the indicative, with forsitan, which takes the subjunctive.^[6]

Charisius says that usage preferred fortasse because fortassis sounded harsh.^[3] It is uncertain whether Cicero used it, since the manuscripts disagree;^[3] Pliny the Elder, Ulpian, Rufinus and Augustine prefer it to fortasse.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Bacchides and the Asinaria.^[2][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it with the subjunctive.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder prefers it to fortasse.^[3][2][5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Perhaps, possibly.^[2][7]

Related words

• fortasse
• forsitan
• fors

Usage notes

Metre never requires the form in -is in Plautus or Terence, while fortasse is often elided there before a vowel.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press