Etymologically
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generalis

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ɡɛ.nɛˈraː.lɪs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [d͡ʒe.neˈraː.lis][1]

Forms

generālis (neuter generāle, comparative generālior, superlative generālissimus, adverb generāliter); third-declension two-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from genus, ⟨generis⟩ “kind, class” with the suffix -ālis.[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citation is from Lucretius, of what is common to a whole kind.[2][4] Köbler's first source is Cicero; he dates Lucretius 96–55 BC.[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant common to a whole class or kind, generic, as Lucretius' generālīs maculae “markings of their kind”, which Lewis and Short call very rare, and in Varro forming a class.[2][6] From Cicero it meant of universal application, general, and concerned with the nature of a thing, and Quintilian has a comparative magis generāle.[2][4][3]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant general, generic, and as a noun a general, the head of a religious order.[7][5] Medieval Latin used it for universal, ecumenical, and common to all.[8] English general came about 1200, through Old French and directly from Latin, first “of wide application”.[9]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of what is generic.[2][4][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the general.[2][5]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian has a comparative.[3][5]
  • c. 1200 – English general is recorded.[9]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Generic, of a whole class; forming a class.[2]
  2. General, universal.[2]
  3. Concerned with the nature of a thing.[2]
  4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) As a noun, the general of an order.[7]

Word family

  • generalitas

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com