imminuo

Forms

imminuō (present infinitive imminuere, perfect active imminuī, supine imminūtum); third conjugation^[1] It is also spelled inm-.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + minuō (“to lessen”).^[2][1] De Vaan traces minuō to Proto-Italic *minu-je/o- (“to lessen”) and to a nasal present Proto-Indo-European *mi-n(e)-h₁- (“to make less”).^[4] Cognate with Oscan menvum (“to lessen”), Sanskrit मिनाति (minā́ti, “damages, diminishes”) and Ancient Greek μινύθω (minúthō, “to lessen”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example in the OLD is Plautus' “no one else has ever impaired my chastity”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to make smaller, as in Cicero's advice to reduce one's small forces as little as possible, and in Gellius to form a diminutive, sacellum from sacrum.^[2] It is more often used of abstract things, to diminish or lessen them, and to impair or weaken, as in Cicero's state broken by misfortune, impaired and enfeebled.^[2][3] Tacitus uses it of lowering someone's dignity: Augusta complained that she was being outraged and slighted.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “abate, diminish, lessen”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of impaired chastity.^[2][6]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of reducing forces and of a weakened state.^[2][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of lowered dignity.^[2][6]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius of forming a diminutive.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make smaller, reduce, diminish;^[2][3][1] (grammar) to form a diminutive.^[2][3][1]
2. To lessen in degree.^[2][3]
3. To impair, weaken, spoil.^[2][3]
4. To lower in honour or dignity.^[2]

Word family

• imminūtiō

Related words

• minuō
• minor

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 n o p 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. ^ 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. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de