immotus

Forms

immōtus (feminine immōta, neuter immōtum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It is also spelled inmōtus;^[2][3] Priscian teaches that it should be written with im-.^[4]

Etymology

It is formed from the negative prefix in- (“not, un-”) and mōtus (“moved”), the participle of moveō (“to move”).^[2][3][4] ⟨moveō⟩ goes back to Proto-Italic *mow(a)- and Proto-Indo-European *m(i̯)euh₁- (“to move”), cognate with Hittite mau- (“to fall”) and Sanskrit मीवन्ती (-mī́vantī, “pushing down”).^[5] The TLL compares the Greek negative adjective ἀκίνητος (akínētos, “unmoved”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Virgil as its first author;^[6] in the Aeneid the Sibyl's leaves stay unmoved in their places and do not leave their order.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is not moved or motionless, as Virgil's tree that stands unmoved, and of a harbour or the sea undisturbed and calm, as Virgil's harbour sheltered from the winds.^[2][3] Of abstract things it is unchanged or fixed, as Virgil's “the fates of your people remain unchanged”, and in Velleius of a state where nothing was left undisturbed.^[2] Of feelings it is unmoved, unrelenting or inflexible, as Ovid's ears deaf to the lowing of the victim.^[2][3]

Lewis and Short call it mostly poetic and post-Augustan.^[3] Church Latin glosses it “unmoved, unchanged, steadfast”.^[7]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil of motionless leaves and of unchanging fates.^[2][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of ears unmoved by entreaty.^[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not moved; motionless, immovable.^[2][3][1]
2. Undisturbed, unshaken, calm.^[2][1]
3. Unaltered, unchanged, fixed.^[2][7]
4. Emotionally unmoved, inflexible, steadfast.^[2][1][7]

Related words

• moveō
• immōbilis

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