impatientia

Forms

impatientia f (genitive impatientiae); first declension^[1] It is also spelled ⟨inpatientia⟩.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin impatiēns (“unable to bear”) + -ia.^[2][1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Valerius Maximus, in an uncertain reading, and Seneca;^[4][5] Seneca uses it to render the Stoic apatheia, freedom from emotion.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Seneca proposes it as a one-word Latin rendering of the Stoic term for impassivity.^[2][7] The usual sense was inability or unwillingness to endure something, impatience:^[2][3] Pliny the Elder has an inability to bear cold, Tacitus an inability to keep silent and a man who feared he would give way to weakness at his wife's sufferings, and Suetonius an aversion to seasickness.^[2][6] Lewis and Short call it post-Augustan.^[3] Valerius Maximus and Apuleius use it of incontinence in sensual pleasure.^[6]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it means impatience,^[8] and in medieval Latin also eager desire.^[9] Italian has impazienza from it.^[7]

Timeline

• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it for the Stoic apatheia.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder speaks of an inability to bear cold.^[2][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of an inability to keep silent.^[2][5]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of sensual incontinence.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Inability or unwillingness to bear something, impatience; incontinence.^[2][3][6]
2. Freedom from emotion, impassivity (the Stoic apatheia).^[2][6]
3. (Medieval Latin) Eager desire.^[9]

Related words

• impatiēns
• patientia

References

1. ^ a b 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill