graphicus

Forms

graphicus (feminine graphica, neuter graphicum, Greek comparative graphicōteros), first/second-declension adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek γραφικός (graphikós, “of painting or drawing; picturesque”),^[1][3][4] from γράφω (gráphō, “to scratch, write, draw”).^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it of people, in a colloquial sense: perfect of one's kind, as if drawn from a model,^[1][7] as in habes servom graphicum et quantivis preti “you have a model slave, worth any price” (Epidicus 410).^[1][8]

Semantic evolution

In Plautus the word always qualifies a person, a consummate trickster or thief (graphicum furem, nimium graphicum hunc nugatorem);^[8][9] the TLL, following Fraenkel, explains it as “not a real person but a picture of one”, close to scitus “clever”.^[8] The literal sense was taken again from Greek later:^[8] Vitruvius uses the Greek comparative of walls whose joints please the eye like a painting,^[1][8] and a Late Latin medical text has it of ink suited for writing.^[8]

In medieval England it was a noun, a scribe.^[10][5] English borrowed it as graphic “vivid” in the 1660s.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus calls a slave, a trickster and a thief graphicus.^[1][8][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses the comparative of picturesque masonry.^[1][5]
• c. 1100 – A manuscript poem probably uses it for a scribe.^[10]
• 1660s – Borrowed into English as graphic.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of persons, colloquial) Perfect of one's kind, as if painted; exquisite, consummate.^[1][2][9]
2. Picturesque, artistic.^[1][4]
3. (Late Latin) Suited for writing.^[8]

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) A scribe.^[10][5]

Word family

• graphicē
• pergraphicus

Related words

• English graphic

Usage notes

The adverb graphicē means “finely, exactly, to the life” (Plautus, Gellius, Apuleius), and the noun graphicē is the art of drawing in Pliny the Elder.^[4][7][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press