Etymologically
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immaturus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪm.maːˈtuː.rʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [im.maˈtuː.rus][1]

Forms

immātūrus (feminine immātūra, neuter immātūrum, comparative immātūrior, superlative immātūrrimus); first/second-declension adjective[1] It is also spelled inmātūrus.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + mātūrus (“ripe, timely”).[2][1] De Vaan, who dates it from Plautus, derives mātūrus from a noun Proto-Italic *mātu- (“ripeness”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂-tu- (“ripeness”), which also lies behind Mātūta (“goddess of the dawn”) and mātūtīnus (“of early morning”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, in the Persa, of an abscess not yet ready to be lanced.[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

It means unripe, of fruit, as in Celsus, and not fully developed, of other things and of young people and animals.[2][3] Above all it is premature or untimely, especially of an early death, as Cicero speaks of the loss that Roman letters suffered by one man's untimely death.[2] Livy also uses it of something ill-timed, as an untimely love.[2] English immature came from it in the 1540s, first meaning untimely and usually said of early death.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of an unripe abscess.[2][5]
  • 86–34 BC – Sallust of a life cut short.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of an untimely death.[2][5]
  • 1540s – English immature is borrowed, first meaning untimely.[6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of fruit, unripe; of other things, not fully developed.[2][3][1]
  2. Of persons or animals, not mature.[2][7]
  3. Premature, untimely, especially of death.[2][3][1]
  4. Ill-timed, unseasonable.[2]

Word family

  • immātūritās

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson