immensus

Forms

immēnsus (feminine immēnsa, neuter immēnsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It is also spelled inmēnsus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + mēnsus (“measured”), the negated past participle of mētior (“to measure”).^[2][1][4] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of mētior, a verb made from a noun Proto-Italic *mēti-, Proto-Indo-European *meh₁-ti- (“measurement”).^[5] Servius' commentator explains it as what cannot be taken in by measure.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Lucretius,^[5] who asks whether the universe immēnsum pateat vāstēque profundum, “lies open, immeasurable and vast in depth”.^[2] Köbler gives Cato.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Immēnsus is “immeasurable, boundless” (Virgil's immēnsum mare), and with some exaggeration “huge, vast”, which the OLD says is the main idea in most examples.^[2] It is used of endless time (Cicero: tempore immēnsō), of great weight, value or number, of abstract things “immense, infinite” (cupiditātēs immēnsae, Cicero), and of noise.^[2][3] The neuter immēnsum is “an immense space” and, as an adverb, “immensely”, Pliny the Elder has immēnsum quantum, “to an enormous degree”.^[2][3]

Church Latin glosses it “immense, infinite, all-pervading”.^[7]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius: immēnsum pateat vāstēque profundum.^[2][5][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of endless time.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of the boundless sea.^[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Immeasurable, boundless, endless.^[2][3][1]
2. Huge, vast.^[2][3]
3. Endless (in time); innumerable.^[2]
4. Immense, infinitely great.^[2][7]

Word family

• immēnsitās
• immensum

Related words

• mētior
• mēnsūra
• mēnsor

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson