Etymologically
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immo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɪm.moː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈim.mo][1]

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]

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