immo

Forms

immō (not comparable)^[1] It is also spelled imō.^[2][3][4] Plautus and Terence sometimes scan it as two short syllables.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[5][2][6] An ablative ⟨*īmō⟩ of īmus “lowest, last” would suit the sense, but not the short first syllable and double ⟨m⟩, unless the negative force of the word caused the doubling, de Vaan asks.^[5][1] He also notes that Hittite imma (“truly, indeed”) and Cuneiform Luwian imma look very similar, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *im and a form ⟨*moh₂⟩ or ⟨*moh₁⟩, but that a geminate ⟨*-mm-⟩ would not be expected to survive in Latin.^[5][1] Others have proposed ⟨*ipsimō⟩, from ipse.^[1] Lewis and Short took it as a superlative of in, like summus and prīmus.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Naevius.^[5] Plautus has fēcistī ut tibi … numquam referre grātiam possim satis – immō potes, “you have made it impossible for me ever to repay you enough” – “on the contrary, you can”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Immō corrects what has just been said: it denies it outright (“on the contrary, no”), or corrects it by going further (“nay rather, what is more”, often with vērō, potius, edepol or hercle).^[2][3][1] It introduces an order to do something different, and in immō sī sciās “if only you knew” it implies the other person spoke in ignorance.^[2] The TLL notes that it is very common in Plautus and Terence.^[7]

Church Latin glosses it “on the contrary”, either “yes indeed” or “no indeed”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Used by Naevius.^[5][6]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: immō potes.^[2][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it often.^[7][6]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it in a pentameter.^[7][6]

Meanings

Adverb

1. On the contrary, no, nay.^[2][3][1][4]
2. Nay rather, what is more, indeed.^[2][3][1]
3. immō sī sciās, if only you knew.^[2]

Related words

• īmus
• quīn
• vērō
• potius

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
5. ^ a b c d e 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 e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften