imitabilis

Forms

imitābilis (neuter imitābile); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin imitor (“to imitate, copy”) + -bilis.^[2][3][4] De Vaan derives that frequentative, like imāgō (“image”), from an earlier verb Proto-Italic *imā-je/o-, and connects it with Proto-Indo-European *h₂i-m-h₂- (“image”), whose only certain relative is Hittite himma- (“imitation, substitute”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero's Orator, where the plainness of a style seems easy to imitate to one who judges it.^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it meant “that can be imitated”: Horace warns of a model that can be copied in its faults, Virgil has a thunderbolt that cannot be imitated, and Quintilian calls Pindar imitable by no one.^[4][3] Pliny the Elder says that no gem is more easily imitated in glass, and Pliny the Younger tells a friend that he seemed to him most worthy of imitation.^[3] Vitruvius uses it in the active sense, of men imitative by nature.^[2][3]

British medieval writers used it of what should be imitated, and in philosophy of the divine essence, which creatures can imitate; it also kept the sense “imitative”.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a style that seems imitable.^[2][6]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of an imitative nature.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil writes of a thunderbolt that cannot be imitated.^[3][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a model copied in its faults.^[4][6]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian calls Pindar imitable by no one.^[3][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That can be imitated, imitable.^[2][3]
2. Inclined to imitate, imitative.^[2][3]
3. (Medieval Latin) Worthy of imitation.^[7]

Word family

• inimitābilis

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ 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