iactantia

Forms

iactantia f (genitive iactantiae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin iactāns (“boasting”) + -ia, from the present participle of iactō (“to throw about; to boast”).^[2][1][3] That verb is a frequentative of iaciō (“to throw”), which de Vaan derives from Proto-Italic *jaki- (“to throw”) and the root Proto-Indo-European *(H)ieh₁- (“to throw, let go”); cognate with Ancient Greek ἵημι (híēmi, “to send, throw”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Quintilian,^[5] who speaks of showing off one's talent, iactantia ingenii, and of not inserting something for fear of being thought boastful.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it post-Augustan.^[6] It is boasting, as in Tacitus' militaris iactantia and Maroboduus' iactantia sui, and showing off or ostentation, as Tacitus' verborum iactantia and Gellius' remark on someone with more display than work in letters.^[2][7] The Christian writers make it a vice: Augustine defines it as the fault of a soul that loves to be praised by men and scorns the witness of conscience, and Martin of Braga says it is what the Greeks call kenodoxia and the Latins vana gloria.^[3] In Ecclesiastical Latin it is vainglory,^[8] and medieval writers in Britain use it of boasting and bragging, and once of the shifting of sand.^[9] It survives in Italian iattanza.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of showing off.^[2][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of military boasting.^[2][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of ostentation.^[2][5]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine defines it as a vice.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Boasting, bragging, boastfulness.^[2][6][7]
2. Showing off, ostentation, display.^[2][6][7]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Vainglory.^[8][3]

Related words

• iactō
• iactātiō
• iaciō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ 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