ignorantia

Forms

ignōrantia f (genitive ignōrantiae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from ignōrāns, the participle of ignōrō (“not to know”), with -ia.^[2][1] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of ignōrō and, with Nussbaum, explains that verb from Proto-Italic *gnōs-, an s-present of Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃-s- (“to recognize, know”) like the one in Hittite kane/išš- (“to recognize, acknowledge”); he rejects the older view that it was made from ignārus (“ignorant”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Lucretius.^[3] Lewis & Short note that it is mostly post-Augustan, but Caesar has ignōrantia locī, ignorance of the place.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It is lack of knowledge or information, with the genitive of what is not known, as in Caesar and Suetonius.^[4][2] The TLL notes that it renders Ancient Greek ἄγνοια (ágnoia) in translations from Greek.^[5] In scholastic Latin it is the absence of due knowledge, and in Medieval Latin it can also mean an error or a sin.^[6][7]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it.^[3][8]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of ignorance of the ground.^[4][8]
• c. 1200 – English ignorance is borrowed through French.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Ignorance, lack of knowledge or information.^[2][4][6][1]
2. (Medieval Latin) An error; a sin.^[7]

Related words

• ignōrāns
• ignōrō
• ignōrātiō
• English ignorance

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com