imaginarius

Forms

imāginārius (feminine imāgināria, neuter imāginārium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin imāgō (“image, likeness”) + -ārius.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Livy and Seneca the philosopher on.^[4][3] Livy uses it of sham insignia of power: they would not give way to imaginarii fasces, fasces that were a mere show.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

It means existing only in appearance or imagination: Seneca speaks of an empty honour of words (imaginarius honor verborum),^[2] Suetonius of a fictitious kind of military service, and Florus of a stage king.^[5][6] In law it is a fictitious, pretended act, such as the imaginaria venditio, the symbolic sale described by Gaius.^[2][5]

The literal sense “of images” is found in an inscription about a funeral held with a lay figure,^[2] and in the Edict of Diocletian for painters of figures.^[5][6] As a noun, imāginārius is the soldier who carried the emperor's image as a standard, in Vegetius.^[5][6] In Medieval Latin it also meant figurative, allegorical or symbolic, and concerned with pictures.^[7][8] English imaginary (late 14th century) comes from it or from imagine with -ary.^[9]

Timeline

• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of sham insignia of office.^[5][6][3]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of an empty honour.^[2][3]
• 140–180 AD – Gaius uses it of a fictitious sale.^[2][3]
• c. 400 AD – Vegetius uses it for the bearer of the emperor's image.^[5][3]
• late 14th century – English imaginary appears.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of images; involving an effigy or figure.^[2][5]
2. Existing only in appearance, unreal, imaginary.^[2][5]
3. (law) Fictitious, pretended.^[2][6]
4. (Medieval Latin) Figurative, allegorical, symbolic.^[7]

Noun

1. A standard-bearer carrying the emperor's image.^[5][6]

Related words

• English imaginary

References

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