Etymologically
Log in

immeritus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 19 October 2026 at 21:00. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪmˈmɛ.rɪ.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [imˈmɛː.ri.tus][1]

Forms

immeritus (feminine immerita, neuter immeritum); first/second-declension adjective[1] It is also spelled inmeritus.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + meritus (“deserved, deserving”).[2][1] meritus is the participle of mereō (“to earn, deserve”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *mer-ē- (“to earn”) and, with a question mark, to *(s)mr-eh₁-; he compares Ancient Greek μείρομαι (meíromai, “to receive one's share”) and μέρος (méros, “part, share”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has the phrase immeritō meō, “without my deserving it”: a character asks why someone wants to send him to his death though he has done nothing to deserve it.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is active, of people who have not deserved what they get, guiltless: Horace tells the Roman that he will pay for the sins of his fathers though he has not deserved it.[3] It is also passive, of what is undeserved, as Livy's well-deserved thanks and glory, haud immeritam.[2] Lewis & Short find the adjective mostly in poetry and post-Augustan prose.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has immeritō meō.[2][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it.[5]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of a guiltless Roman.[3][5]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of deserved glory.[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Not deserving of harm, guiltless, innocent; also, not deserving of a benefit.[2][3]
  2. immeritō meō, without my deserving it.[2]
  3. Undeserved, unmerited.[2][3][1]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ 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