immansuetus

Pronunciation

• Classical: [ɪm.mãːˈsʷeː.tʊs]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [im.manˈsʷɛː.tus]^[1]

Forms

immānsuētus (feminine immānsuēta, neuter immānsuētum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It is also spelt inmānsuētus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + mānsuētus (“tame”).^[2][4][1] De Vaan lists mānsuētus among the derivatives of suēscō (“to become accustomed”) and explains it from ⟨*manu-suēto-⟩, a compound with manus (“hand”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Ovid,^[6] who uses it of a fierce, untamed person in the Metamorphoses and of Boreas, the most savage of the winds, in the Heroides.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it poetic and post-Augustan.^[3] Ovid also has it of the Cyclops and of a wild and savage nature, Seneca of a fierce bull and of animals no care can tame, and Statius of Creon;^[3][4] Georges also cites Cicero for an uncivilised people.^[7] Paulus' epitome of Festus uses it to explain the old word incicorem, and glossaries render it with Greek words for wild.^[4]

In the Middle Ages Frederick II's book on falconry uses it of falcons that grow wilder, and other writers of cruel men.^[8] British sources gloss it as untamed and undisciplined, of an irascible temperament.^[9]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a savage person and of the north wind.^[3][6]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of a fierce bull.^[3][6]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it of Creon.^[4][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Untamed, wild, savage.^[2][3]
2. (of people) Uncivilised; cruel.^[7][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ 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