Etymologically
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impensa

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪmˈpẽː.sa][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [imˈpɛn.sa][1]

Forms

impēnsa f (genitive impēnsae); first declension[1] It is also spelled inp-.[2][3]

Etymology

It is the feminine perfect participle of impendō (“to pay out, spend”) used as a noun, with a word for “sum” or “money” understood, like expēnsa.[4][2][1] The verb is from in- and pendō (“to weigh out, pay”),[5] which goes back to Proto-Italic *pend-e/o- (“to hang, weigh”).[5] Isidore of Seville derived ⟨pēnsum⟩ “a task weighed out” from ⟨pendere⟩, and saw ⟨pēnsa⟩ and this noun as formed from it.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Cicero,[6] who speaks of a thing done “without labour, without trouble, without expense”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is cost, expenditure or outlay, and in the praetor's edict impensam facere is to incur an expense;[2] Cicero also uses it of the things money is spent on, calling walls, docks and harbours the better kind of expenses.[2] Virgil extends it to the outlay of effort, “so great an expenditure of labour”.[2] In Petronius it is the materials needed for something, there the things for a sacrifice, and it is also used of building materials.[2]

Döderlein distinguishes it from sumptus: sumptus is spending that diminishes one's wealth and borders on extravagance, impensae spending that serves a purpose and borders on sacrifice.[7] In medieval texts it is raw material or an ingredient, and the procurement of supplies.[8]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of cost and of public works as expenses.[2][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of the outlay of labour.[2][6]
  • before 66 AD – Petronius of the materials for a sacrifice.[2][6]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville links it with pēnsum.[4][6]
  • Middle Ages – Of raw materials and supplies.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Cost, expense, outlay;[2][3][1] impensam facere, to incur an expense.[2]
  2. Outlay of effort or other resources.[2]
  3. Materials, especially building materials.[2]
  4. (Medieval Latin) Raw material, an ingredient; procurement.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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 d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill