impatiens

Forms

impatiēns (genitive impatientis, comparative impatientior, adverb impatienter); third-declension one-termination adjective^[1] It is also spelled inpatiēns.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from the negative prefix in- (“not”) and patiēns (“enduring, patient”), the participle of patior (“to suffer, endure”).^[2][1][4] De Vaan finds the origin of ⟨patior⟩ unclear: it has been linked with Ancient Greek πῆμα (pêma, “suffering”), or might come from the root ⟨*pet-⟩ “to fall”, as “it befalls me”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Virgil,^[4] who has a horse that will not bear its wound.^[2] Lewis and Short note that it is not found before the Augustan age.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is unable to bear or endure something, usually with a genitive, as Virgil's wounded horse, and absolutely impatient, as Ovid's lover who could not bear the torment of long grief.^[2][3] Seneca uses it to render the Greek philosophical term ἀπαθής (apathḗs, “free from passion”), of the impassive mind of Stilpo and others.^[2][1] In the declamations ascribed to Quintilian it is passive, unbearable.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “impatient, unable to endure”,^[6] and in medieval Latin it is desiring something impatiently.^[7] English impatient is from it in the late 14th century, through Old French.^[8]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a horse that will not bear its wound.^[2][4]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a lover who cannot bear his grief.^[2][4]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca for the Greek “impassive”.^[2][4]
• late 14th century – English impatient.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That cannot bear or endure; impatient of something.^[2][3][1][6]
2. Impatient, not tolerating the situation.^[2]
3. Unmoved by feeling, impassive, stoic.^[2][1]
4. Unbearable.^[2]
5. (Medieval Latin) Desiring impatiently.^[7]

Word family

• impatientia

Related words

• patior
• patiēns
• English impatient

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 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 d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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 Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com