Etymologically
Log in

imperitia

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 12:55. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Forms

imperītia f (genitive imperītiae); first declension[1] It is also spelled inperītia.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin imperītus (“inexperienced”) + -ia.[2][1] imperītus is the negative of perītus (“experienced, skilled”),[4] which de Vaan files with experior and reperiō under pariō, tracing the family to Proto-Italic *per(e)i- and Proto-Indo-European *pérh3-i- (“to provide”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and Lewis & Short record it first in Sallust,[5][3] who in the Jugurtha has Jugurtha learn of the vanity and inexperience of a legate, cognita vanitate atque imperitia legati.[3]

Semantic evolution

It means lack of skill or experience, ignorance.[2] Lewis & Short note that it is mostly post-Augustan and absent from Cicero and Caesar.[3] Besides Sallust it is found in Tacitus, of the inexperience of young men, in Quintilian, who couples it with boorishness, and in Pliny the Elder;[3] Seneca and Gellius use it with a genitive of the thing one is ignorant of, and Gellius even has a plural.[6][3] In Church Latin it is ignorance or lack of knowledge,[7] and medieval writers keep the classical sense, also in an author's modest remarks about his own lack of skill.[8][9]

Timeline

  • 86–34 BC – Sallust, of the inexperience of a legate and of the enemy.[3][5]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of the inexperience of young men.[3][5]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius, of ignorance of things and words.[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Lack of skill or experience, inexperience.[2][3][1]
  2. Ignorance; awkwardness.[2][3][1][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  9. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press