Etymologically
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ibidem

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪˈbiː.dẽː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [iˈbiː.dem][1]

Forms

ibīdem (not comparable)[1] Plautus always scans it ibĭdem, with a short second vowel.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from ibī (“there”) with the particle ⟨-dem⟩ of īdem (“the same”), itidem and tantundem.[3][4][2][1] De Vaan traces ⟨ibī⟩ to Proto-Italic *iþei and Proto-Indo-European *h1i-dhei (“there”), with a slight preference over ⟨*h1i-bhei⟩; cognate with Umbrian ife (“there”) and Sanskrit इह (ihá, “here”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Naevius,[5] who has people who would rather die in that very place than return in disgrace.[3] Köbler's first source is Livius Andronicus.[6]

Semantic evolution

It means “in that very place”, or in a place already mentioned, as Cato's nuts on the same pine, and “in the same place as someone else”, as Plautus' “your wife is in there too”.[3] Of time it is “at that very moment, there and then”: Cicero wrote a letter at dinner on the spot.[3][1] Plautus also uses it for “in the same matter”.[3]

Church Latin glosses it “in the same place, in that very place”, abbreviated ibid..[7] In medieval sources it can stand for “to the same”, like a dative pronoun.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 235–200 BC – Naevius of dying on the spot.[3][5][6]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of the same place.[3][6]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato of a place already mentioned.[3][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero in the sense “there and then”.[3][6]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. In that very place; in the same place.[3][2][1][7]
  2. At that very moment, there and then.[3][1]
  3. In the same matter.[3]
  4. (Medieval Latin) To the same.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill