generatim

Forms

generātim (adverb; not comparable)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin genus (“kind, race”) + -tim.^[1][2][3] De Vaan files genus under gignō (“to beget”) and traces it to Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁-o/es- (“race, offspring”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short quote it first from Lucretius, of the fixed limit of growth assigned to things kind by kind.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

It is by classes or kinds: Cicero writes of the rights of citizens divided by orders and ages, and Varro asks whether analogy is not kept among birds by kind, eagles coming from eagles.^[1] Cicero also has things arranged by kind with skill.^[1] It is in separate groups: Cicero has a man honoured by the whole province and by each of its parts.^[1] It is then in general terms: Cicero wishes to cover everything generally, and contrasts speaking one by one with speaking by kind and in general.^[1][5] Servius distinguishes it from generaliter: ⟨generātim⟩ is kind by kind, ⟨generāliter⟩ all at once.^[2] Church Latin glosses it by kinds, species, classes or divisions.^[6]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of limits set kind by kind.^[5][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of citizens divided by orders.^[1][3]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of birds by kind.^[1][3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. By classes or kinds, by species.^[1][5][7][6]
2. In separate groups.^[1]
3. In general terms, generally.^[1][7]

Related words

• genus
• singillātim

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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 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
7. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org