immensitas

Forms

immēnsitās f (genitive immēnsitātis); third declension^[1] Also spelled ⟨inmēnsitās⟩.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin immēnsus (“immeasurable, boundless”) + -tās.^[2][1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero is its first author, in the De natura deorum: in hāc immēnsitāte lātitūdinum, longitūdinum, altitūdinum īnfīnīta vīs innumerābilium volitat atomōrum, “in this immensity of breadths, lengths and heights flies an infinite number of countless atoms”.^[2][4][3][5]

Semantic evolution

Cicero also has the plural, the heights of mountains and immēnsitātēs campōrum, vast plains.^[2][3] The TLL counts two uses in Cicero and one in Apuleius, then the Edict of Diocletian, Ammianus and the Church writers;^[4] Apuleius says that the whole immensity of the earth is enclosed by the Atlantic sea.^[2] Augustine speaks of the immensity of the ocean,^[4] and Christian writers used it above all of God and his works, of their greatness as much as their extent.^[4][6]

In Medieval Latin it was hugeness, abundance and eternity:^[7] it was used of space, of time, of number and of degree,^[8] and Albertus Magnus writes of the whole immensity of time, which some called eternity.^[8] Anselm uses it of the infinity of God the creator;^[9] it also meant a great amount, the great size of a giant, and in a letter of 1337 a title of honour.^[9]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the immensity of space filled with atoms.^[2][5]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of the earth enclosed by the Atlantic.^[2][5]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine speaks of the immensity of the ocean.^[4][5]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus uses it.^[4][5]
• second half of the 11th century–1109 – Anselm uses it of the infinity of God.^[9][5]
• 1337 – A letter uses it as a title of honour.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Immensity, vastness, boundless extent.^[2][3][10]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Infinity, the boundlessness of God.^[6][4][9]
3. (Medieval Latin) A great amount or degree; abundance.^[7][9][8]
4. (Medieval Latin) Eternity.^[7][8]
5. (Medieval Latin) Great size or stature; also a title of honour.^[9]

Related words

• English immensity

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b c d e f g 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
10. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn