impense

Forms

impēnsē (comparative impēnsius, superlative impēnsissimē)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin impēnsus (“costly; great”) + -ē, from the participle of impendō (“to spend”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces pendō (“to weigh, pay”) to Proto-Italic *pend-e/o- (“to hang, weigh”) and Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend-, a root most handbooks connect with spinning.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short quote Plautus first, who uses it with an adjective for someone excessively wicked.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The sense at great cost, lavishly, is in Persius, who tells a slave to oil the cabbages more generously, and in Suetonius, of libraries rebuilt at great expense after a fire.^[3] More often it is exceedingly, earnestly, eagerly: Terence has one man who envies more than all the others, and Livy and Quintilian use it with verbs of asking and holding on.^[3] Lewis & Short note that the comparative ⟨impēnsius⟩ is especially frequent.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus with an adjective.^[3][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of envying intensely.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the comparative.^[3][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of holding on eagerly.^[3][5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. At great cost, lavishly, without stint.^[2][3]
2. Exceedingly, greatly; earnestly, eagerly.^[3][1]

Related words

• impendō
• impēnsa

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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