Etymologically
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imago

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ɪˈmaː.ɡoː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [iˈmaː.ɡo][1]

Forms

imāgō f (genitive imāginis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from a stem *imā-, seen also in imitārī “to copy”, with the suffix -āgō.[2][1][3] De Vaan derives both words from an Italic verb *imā-je/o- and reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *h₂i-m-h₂- (“image”), a root he finds poorly attested; if aemulus belongs to it, from *h₂eim-elo-, the underlying noun *imā- is confirmed, and Hittite himma- (“imitation, substitute”) may be cognate.[4] Wiktionary gives the root as Proto-Indo-European *h₂eym- (“to imitate”) and adds Old English efn (“even, equal”).[1] Devoto's derivation from a root meaning “twin”, as in Sanskrit यम (yamá-, “twin”), has no verbal cognates to support it.[4] Festus derived it from imitātiō, and Porphyrio explained it as if it were imitago.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards,[4][6] who speaks of a man's likeness pressed in wax from his signet ring and of Jupiter taking on the likeness of Amphitruo.[2]

Semantic evolution

It meant a representation in art, a picture, statue or especially a bust, and in particular the wax death masks of ancestors who had held office, kept in the atrium and carried in funeral processions, so that “a man of many imagines” was a noble.[2][5][7] It also meant a reflection in a mirror or water, an echo, and, in Epicurean philosophy, the film of images given off by objects.[2]

Beyond these it was a ghost or apparition, a mental picture, a description in words, a simile in rhetoric, a mere semblance (imago rei publicae), a copy or likeness, an illustrative example, a visible manifestation (the face as the imago of the mind), and visible form or shape (Virgil's “manifold image of death”).[2][5] Medieval Latin used it for a seal, the type of a coin, a standard, an allegory, a prefiguration and, by metonymy, idolatry.[8][6][9] It survives as French image, Italian immagine, Spanish imagen and Portuguese imagem,[1] and English image came through Old French about 1200, while imago itself was borrowed in 1797 for the adult form of an insect.[10]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a seal impression and of a likeness.[2][6]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of an echo.[2][6]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of a mirror image.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of ancestral masks, Epicurean images, ghosts and similes.[2][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a ghost and of the image of death.[2][6]
  • 831–833 – Paschasius Radbertus has a medieval sense.[6]
  • c. 1200 – English Image is borrowed into English.[10]
  • 1797 – English Imago is borrowed into English for the adult insect.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A representation in art, a picture, a statue, a bust.[2][5]
  2. The death mask of an ancestor who held office, and in the plural noble ancestry.[2][5]
  3. A reflection in a mirror; an echo.[2]
  4. (Epicurean philosophy) An image given off by an object.[2]
  5. A ghost, an apparition; a hallucination.[2]
  6. A mental picture, a description in words, or in rhetoric a simile.[2][5]
  7. A semblance, a show; a copy, a likeness.[2]
  8. An illustrative example; a visible manifestation.[2]
  9. Visible form, appearance; a shape, a kind.[2]
  10. (Medieval Latin) A seal; the type of a coin; a standard; an allegory; idolatry.[8][6][9]

Word family

  • imaginalis
  • imāginārius
  • imagineus
  • imāginifer
  • imāginōsus
  • imāguncula
  • imāginābilis
  • imāginō
  • imāginor

Usage notes

Döderlein notes that imago is a representation allied to its original by a striking likeness, simulācrum a deceptive imitation, while statua, signum and effigiēs are only plastic works.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  9. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper