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graphicus

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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

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