Etymologically
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impensus

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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]

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