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ieiunus

Etymology and origin of the Latin word ieiunus

History

Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [jɛjˈjuː.nʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [jeˈjuː.nus][1]

Forms

ieiūnus (feminine ieiūna, neuter ieiūnum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

The oldest form is iaiūnus, found in the oldest manuscripts of Plautus and in Pliny, which was later assimilated to ieiūnus.[2][3] Following Forssman, de Vaan derives it from Proto-Italic *jagjūno-, a remodelling of an adjective *jagju- “eager to sacrifice”, from Proto-Indo-European *Hyeh₂ǵ- (“to worship, sacrifice”).[2][1][4] The link with fasting would lie in the custom of making the first sacrifice of the day on an empty stomach, and the same root is behind ientāculum “breakfast”.[2][4] The OLD and Köbler consider the origin unknown.[5][6]

Cognate with Sanskrit यजति (yájati, “worships, sacrifices”), Avestan yaza- (“to worship”) and Ancient Greek ἅγιος (hágios, “holy”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is attested from Plautus onwards.[2][6] In a prologue Plautus warns that anyone who has come to the theatre hungry had better leave.[7]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense was fasting, having eaten nothing, and also hungry or thirsty, and Cato prescribes a dose for an ox that has not eaten.[5][7] Celsus used ieiunum intestinum for the part of the small intestine found empty, the jejunum.[5][4] Figuratively it meant meagre or lacking, of land barren, and of style dry and uninteresting, as when Cicero calls the annals of the pontiffs the most ieiunum thing possible.[5][8]

In Christian Latin it meant fasting in a religious sense, and the noun ieiunium “fast” gave French jeûne.[6][1] English jejune was borrowed in the 1610s in the sense “dull, insipid”.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for a hungry audience.[7][6]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato prescribes a dose for a fasting ox.[5][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero calls barren fields ieiuni and a speaker's style ieiunum.[5][6]
  • 1st century AD – Celsus names the ieiunum intestinum.[5]
  • 1610s – English borrows it as English jejune.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Fasting, having eaten nothing; hungry, thirsty.[5][7]
  2. ieiunum intestinum: the jejunum.[5]
  3. Meagre, lacking, devoid (of something).[5]
  4. (of land) Barren, poor.[5]
  5. (of style) Dry, dull, jejune.[5][8]
  6. (Medieval Latin) Abstaining, holding aloof.[9]

Word family

  • iēiūnidicus
  • ieiūnitās
  • ieiūnium
  • ieiūnō
  • ieientō
  • ieiūnē
  • ientō
  • ientāculum
  • English jejune
  • English jejunum
  • English dinner

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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
Cite this entry

“Ieiunus.” Etymologically, 10 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/ieiunus. Accessed 10 Oct. 2026.

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