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immoderatus

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word immoderatus

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
106–43 BC, Laberius
Ultimate origin
Latin (moderor)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin moderatus
English moderate
Latin immoderatus
Latin moderate

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪm.mɔ.dɛˈraː.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [im.mo.deˈraː.tus][1]

Forms

immoderātus (feminine immoderāta, neuter immoderātum, comparative immoderātior); first/second-declension adjective[1] It is also spelled inmoderātus.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + moderātus (“moderate”).[2][1] The participle is from moderor (“to control, restrain”), which de Vaan lists among the derivatives of modus “measure”.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Laberius.[5] In Cicero's speech for Roscius of Ameria it is used of excessive storms beside violent winds.[2]

Semantic evolution

Of degree it is unlimited, excessive, and in poetry measureless: Cicero, translating Euripides, has the lofty, boundless ether, and Lucretius too has it of the boundless.[2][3] Of actions and appetites it is unrestrained: the Rhetorica ad Herennium calls immense desires infinite and unrestrained.[2] Of people it is intemperate: Cicero exclaims at an immoderate woman.[2] Church Latin glosses it without measure, immoderate, excessive.[6]

Timeline

  • 106–43 BC – Laberius.[5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of excessive storms and boundless ether.[2][5]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the boundless.[3][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Unlimited, excessive, immoderate;[2][3][1][6] (poetic) measureless, boundless.[2][3][1][6]
  2. Of actions and appetites, unrestrained, unbridled.[2][3][1]
  3. Of people, intemperate.[2][6]

Word family

  • immoderantia

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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
  6. ^ a b c d Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Cite this entry

“Immoderatus.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/immoderatus. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·