imparatus

Forms

imparātus (feminine imparāta, neuter imparātum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It is also spelled inparātus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + parātus (“prepared”).^[2][1][4] parātus is the participle of parō (“to prepare”), which de Vaan, among whose derivatives imparātus appears, explains as a denominal verb from a noun Proto-Indo-European *prh₃-o- (“providing”), comparing Ancient Greek ἔπορον (époron, “provided, gave”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Plautus on; in the Captivi a man is accused of making a fully prepared affair entirely unprepared.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

It describes enterprises and equipment that are not ready, and people who are unprepared or unprovided: in Terence a man says he would have been lost if he had been attacked unprepared, and another does not want to be caught unready when Phormio arrives.^[2][3] Lewis & Short call it classical.^[3] The glossaries render it Ancient Greek ἀνέτοιμος (anétoimos, “unready”).^[4] Church Latin glosses it unprepared.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of an affair made unready.^[2][4][7]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of being caught unprepared.^[2][3][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of things, not prepared, unready.^[2][1]
2. Of people, unprepared, unprovided.^[2][3][6][1]

Word family

• imparatio

Related words

• parātus
• parō

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 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 d 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de