impensus

Forms

impēnsus (feminine impēnsa, neuter impēnsum, comparative impēnsior, superlative impēnsissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2] It is also spelt inpēnsus.^[1][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin impendō (“to pay out, expend”), the perfect passive participle used as an adjective, as Georges, Conte, Köbler and the TLL take it.^[2][4][5][6] The OLD instead treats the whole word as a compound of in- (“not”) and pēnsus (“weighed”), and takes only the senses of high price and intensity as perhaps the participle of that verb.^[1] De Vaan lists the verb among the derivatives of pendō (“to weigh, pay”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *pend-e/o- (“to hang”); most handbooks, he notes, see a variant of Proto-Indo-European *(s)penh₁- (“to spin, weave”) in its root.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Cicero,^[5] who writes to Atticus that he would hand over a villa to Quintus even impenso pretio, at a high price.^[1][4]

Semantic evolution

Of price it means high, dear: Caesar and Livy have impenso pretio, and Horace uses impenso alone for “at great cost”.^[1][2] Gellius has heavier injuries punished with a damno impensiore, a heavier fine.^[2] From the price it was transferred to degree, meaning great, strong, earnest: Cicero speaks of tam impensa voluntas bonorum, the strong goodwill of the good citizens, Lucretius of violent lust and Virgil of a burning love.^[1][4] Ovid and Tacitus use the comparative impensior cura, Valerius Maximus of extravagant words of praise, Quintilian of hard work spent on a science, and Suetonius of the most urgent prayers.^[1][2] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means ample, considerable, expensive, zealous, earnest.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a high price and of strong goodwill.^[1][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a burning love.^[1][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius has impensissimae preces, the most urgent prayers.^[1][2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of price, high, dear, costly.^[1][2]
2. Of feelings and conduct, great, strong, earnest, immoderate.^[1][2]

Related words

• impendō
• impēnsa
• impēnsē

Usage notes

The OLD puts under this word a sense “not paid”, from a gloss in Festus on impensam stipem, sacred money not yet weighed out, and a Plautine line ingrato homine nihil impensius est, which it takes as “nothing is more worthless than an ungrateful man”;^[1] the TLL and Köbler treat this as a separate word from in- and pēnsus, while Georges and Conte read the Plautus line as “nothing costs more than an ungrateful man”.^[6][5][2][4] A noun impēnsus, fourth declension, “outlay, expense”, appears only in the ablative in Symmachus;^[3][2][4] Lewis and Short and Georges render it “outlay”, Conte “zeal”.^[3][2][4]

References

1. ^ 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
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson