ignavus

Forms

ignāvus (feminine ignāva, neuter ignāvum, comparative ignāvior, superlative ignāvissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from in- (“not”) and gnāvus (“busy, active”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces ⟨gnāvus⟩ to Proto-Italic *gnāwo- and Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃-uo- (“knowing”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”), with the sense passing from “knowing” through “experienced” to “busy”; he compares Welsh go-gnaw (“active, persistent”).^[3] Isidore of Seville explained it as “ignorant of the way”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan gives Plautus as its first author.^[3] In the Captivi a man hears that another was captured too: “so we weren't the only cowards”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is lazy or slothful, as Varro's farmers who live in the villa and are lazier than those in the fields, and of conditions and conduct, as Plautus' slackest discipline.^[2] It is sluggish, as Virgil's bees numb with hunger and cold, and of things torpid, as the dead water of Orcus.^[2] It is faint-hearted or cowardly, ignoble (Plautus: homō ignāvissime), and of things useless, as Virgil's woods idle for many years.^[2] Lewis and Short give iners and socors as synonyms and strēnuus, alacer and fortis as opposites.^[5]

Church Latin glosses it “slothful, idle, listless, inactive”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of cowards and slack discipline.^[3][2][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of lazy farmers.^[2][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of sluggish bees and idle woods.^[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Lazy, slothful, idle.^[2][1][6]
2. Sluggish, torpid.^[2][1]
3. Faint-hearted, cowardly.^[2][1]
4. Ignoble, mean.^[2]
5. (of things) Useless, unproductive.^[2][1]

Word family

• īgnāvē
• īgnāvia

Related words

• gnāvus
• iners
• sōcors

References

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