imaginabilis

Forms

imāginābilis (neuter imāginābile); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin imāginor (“to picture to oneself”) + -bilis,^[2][3] the TLL deriving it from the verb, Georges and Gaffiot from its base imāgō (“image”).^[2][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Candidus the Arian, who contrasts an image with what is only imaginable, a mere outline in the mind, and in Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, of what can be grasped by the imagination.^[2][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In Late Latin it was a philosophical term for what exists in or can be grasped by the imagination.^[2][4][7] Medieval writers used it rhetorically of what is figurative or pictorial, and in philosophy of what exists in the imagination or belongs to the power of imagining.^[8] Through Old French and directly from Late Latin it gave English imaginable.^[3]

Timeline

• late 14th century – English borrows it as ymaginable.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Imaginable, conceivable; existing in the imagination.^[7][4][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) Figurative, pictorial.^[8]
3. (Medieval Latin) Belonging to the faculty of imagination.^[8]

Related words

• imāgō
• English imaginable

Usage notes

In Medieval Latin it is also spelled ymaginabilis.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften