impar

Forms

impār (genitive imparis, adverb impariter); third-declension one-termination adjective^[1] It is also spelled inpār.^[2][3] The ablative is imparī, but Virgil has impare in verse.^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin in- (“not”) + pār (“equal”).^[2][1][4] De Vaan finds the origin of ⟨pār⟩ and its long vowel disputed; he prefers to explain it from an older Proto-Italic *paros, comparing Umbrian pars (“prescribed”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler give Cato as its first author.^[4][5] In On Agriculture he says oil mills should have unequal millstones, so that they can be exchanged when worn.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is unequal in size, and unequal or different in quality or rank, as Sallust's brave and cowardly men, alike in danger but unequal in fame, and Seneca's “we are born unequal, we die equal”.^[2] Of forces it is unequal in number, usually weaker, as in Caesar, of a contest uneven, of a person no match for another or unequal to a task, as one unequal to command in Livy.^[2] It is also uneven or inconsistent, as Horace's singer so unlike himself, and of numbers odd: Cicero asks whether the number of stars is even or odd, and pār impār lūdere is to play “odd or even”.^[2][3]

Church Latin glosses it “unequal, uneven, dissimilar”.^[6]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato of millstones.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of odd numbers and unequal contests.^[2][5]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust of unequal fame.^[2][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of inconsistency and the game “odd or even”.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Unequal (in size).^[2][1][3]
2. Unequal, different (in quality or rank); inferior.^[2][1]
3. Unequal in number or strength, (of a contest) uneven.^[2]
4. Not a match (for); unequal (to a task).^[2]
5. Uneven, inconsistent.^[2][6]
6. (of numbers) odd, pār impār lūdere, to play “odd or even”.^[2][1]

Word family

• imparitās

Related words

• pār
• dispār
• aequus

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 l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c 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 e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson