imaginativus

Forms

imāginātīvus (feminine imāginātīva, neuter imāginātīvum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is a Medieval Latin formation,^[2][3] from Latin imāginor (“to picture to oneself”), built on its past participle stem ⟨imāgināt-⟩ with the suffix -īvus.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Richard Anglicus, in his anatomy, calls the front cell of the brain the “fantastic” or imaginative cell, because there the soul grasps the images of things.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

Scholastic writers used it for whatever belongs to the imagination or produces images: Albertus Magnus names an imaginative part of the sensitive soul, and the phrase virtus imaginativa or vis imaginativa meant the faculty of imagination.^[5][2] It could also mean endowed with imagination, or existing only in the imagination, and once a pictorial representation.^[5] In British sources it also named the part of the brain where images are formed.^[2] English took it over in the late 14th century as imaginatif, from Old French and directly from the Medieval Latin word.^[4] It lives on in the Romance languages, as French imaginatif, Italian immaginativo and Spanish imaginativo.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1210 – Richard Anglicus uses it of the front cell of the brain.^[5][3]
• 13th century – Albertus Magnus speaks of the imaginative part of the soul.^[5][3]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as imaginatif.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Medieval Latin) Of or belonging to the imagination; forming mental images.^[5][2]
2. (Medieval Latin) Of the part of the brain where images are formed.^[2][5]
3. (Medieval Latin) Endowed with imagination; also, existing in the imagination, imagined.^[5]
4. (Medieval Latin) virtus imaginativa, vis imaginativa: the faculty of imagination.^[2][5]

Related words

• English imaginative

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften