Etymologically

ignoratio

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 13:24. This address is a permanent link to this version.

Forms

ignōrātiō f (genitive ignōrātiōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ignōrō (“not to know”) + -tiō.[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Cicero on,[3] who in the Republic has people afraid because they did not know the places.[4]

Semantic evolution

It is lack of knowledge, ignorance,[2][4] frequent in Cicero and rare in other writers.[4] Cicero speaks of ignorance of one's family and birth, of dialectic, of causes, of the law, of the truth and of oneself.[4] Curtius has ignorance of a king never seen before, and the Digest ignorance of a fact.[4] It renders Ancient Greek ἄγνοια (ágnoia, “ignorance”) in the Latin version of Didymus.[3]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of ignorance of places.[4][3][5]
  • 1st century AD – Curtius of an unknown king.[4]
  • 533 AD – The Digest of ignorance of a fact.[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Lack of knowledge, ignorance.[2][4][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c 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 d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de