Etymologically
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idem

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈiː.dẽː], [ˈɪ.dẽː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈiː.dem][1]

Forms

īdem (feminine eadem, neuter idem); demonstrative pronoun (with m optionally → n in compounds) with an indeclinable portion[1]

Etymology

It is the pronoun is with an enclitic particle ⟨-em⟩: the neuter ⟨id-em⟩ was misdivided as ⟨i-dem⟩, and ⟨-dem⟩ was then added to the other forms (“eadem”, “eundem”).[2][3][1] Old Latin ⟨*isdem⟩ gave the masculine “īdem” (inscriptions also have “eidem”, “eisdem” and “eisdim”).[2][3] The TLL leaves open whether “īdem” comes from ⟨*is-dem⟩ or was formed from ⟨-dem⟩ after the misdivision.[4]

Compare Oscan ísídum (“the same”) and Sanskrit इदम् (idám, “this”).[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Livius Andronicus on.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Īdem means “the same”: the same as something just mentioned (īdem … quī “the same … as”), the same as before or in each case, and in a weakened sense “he too, likewise”, linking a second statement to the same subject (“at the same time”).[3][6] With ipse it means “the very same”.[7]

In Medieval Latin it was a demonstrative “the said, this” and a personal pronoun “he, she, it”.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 280–200 BC – First found in Livius Andronicus.[2][5]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: mihi sententia eadem est.[3][5]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence: in eōdem lutō haesitās, “you are stuck in the same mud”.[3][5]
  • c. 550–1150 – Medieval Latin uses it for “the said” and “he”.[8]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. The same.[3][6]
  2. The same (as before, or in each case).[3]
  3. He too, likewise; also, at the same time.[3]
  4. (Medieval Latin) The said, this; he, she, it.[8]

Word family

  • identidem

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill