illitteratus

Forms

illitterātus (feminine illitterāta, neuter illitterātum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It is also spelled illiterātus and inlitterātus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + litterātus (“lettered, learned”).^[2][1][4][5] The adjective is formed from littera (“letter”);^[6] de Vaan finds the old derivation of that noun from the root of linō (“to smear”) morphologically unconvincing, and gives no other.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL and Köbler record it from Caecilius Statius,^[5][7] whose quid narras … illitterate inlex? (“what are you saying, you ignorant …?”) is the OLD's first citation.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means uneducated or ignorant:^[2][3] Cato calls the Ligurians illitterati mendacesque, “unlettered and liars”,^[8][2] and Columella uses it of a farm manager who cannot read.^[3][8] It also means lacking higher learning: Cicero calls a man good and not unlearned, and Seneca explains that the word is used of someone not wholly ignorant but not taken on to advanced study.^[2][3] Of things it is unpolished or unscholarly: Pliny the Younger jokes that he writes very many but most unlearned letters.^[3][9]

Gellius and Festus use it in the sense “unwritten”, of laws abolished by the Athenians' silent and unwritten consent and of a peace not set down in writing;^[2][3] the grammarian Priscian uses it of sounds that cannot be written down, such as interjections.^[8][9] In British Medieval Latin it is unable to read and write, also as a noun,^[10] and Köbler gives a medieval noun meaning “layman”.^[7] English took it as illiterate in the early 15th century.^[11]

Timeline

• 230/220–168 BC – Caecilius Statius uses it as a term of abuse.^[2][7]
• 234–149 BC – Cato calls the Ligurians unlettered.^[8][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a man without learning.^[2][7]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it for “unwritten”.^[2][7]
• 6th century AD – Priscian uses it of sounds that cannot be written.^[8][7]
• early 15th century – English borrows it as illiterate.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Uneducated, ignorant, illiterate.^[2][3]
2. Lacking scholarship, unlearned.^[2][3]
3. Of things, unpolished, unscholarly.^[3][9]
4. Not written down, unwritten.^[2][3]
5. (grammar) Of a sound, that cannot be written, inarticulate.^[8][9]
6. (Medieval Latin, as a noun) One who cannot read; a layman.^[10][7]

Related words

• litterātus
• littera
• English illiterate

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com