Etymologically
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immitis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪmˈmiː.tɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [imˈmiː.tis][1]

Forms

immītis (neuter immīte); third-declension two-termination adjective[1] It is also spelled inmītis.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- + mītis (“mild, soft”).[2][4] De Vaan traces ⟨mītis⟩ to Proto-Italic *mīti- and Proto-Indo-European *m(e)h1i-ti- (“soft”), perhaps from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- (“to measure”); cognate with Old Irish mín (“soft”) and Lithuanian miélas (“dear”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero's letters already have the superlative, of Servius, who “will be most merciless”;[2] Köbler's first source is Catullus.[4] Lewis and Short call it mostly poetic and post-Augustan.[3]

Semantic evolution

Of fruit and wine it means “harsh, sour, unripe”, as Horace's unripe grape.[2][3] Mostly it is used of people, “harsh, merciless, cruel”, and of things such as Tibullus' wild winds and the sword forged with cruel skill.[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “harsh, cruel”.[6]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of a merciless man.[2][4]
  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus.[4]
  • c. 55–19/18 BC – Tibullus of wild winds.[2][4]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of an unripe grape.[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of fruit, harsh, sour, unripe.[2][3][1]
  2. Merciless, cruel, harsh; savage.[2][3][1][6]

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