Etymologically
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imperitus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɪm.pɛˈriː.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [im.peˈriː.tus][1]

Forms

imperītus (feminine imperīta, neuter imperītum, comparative imperītior, superlative imperītissimus, adverb imperītē); first/second-declension adjective[1] It is also spelled inperītus.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from the negative prefix in- (“not”) and perītus (“experienced, skilled”).[2][4][1] De Vaan relates ⟨perītus⟩, with experior (“to try”) and perīculum (“trial, danger”), to a verb ⟨*-perior⟩ “to find, experience”, which he connects with pariō (“to bring forth”) and traces to Proto-Indo-European *perh₃- (“to provide”).[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Stichus: imperītus rērum et mōrum mulierum, “ignorant of women's affairs and ways”.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Imperītus is lacking experience, knowledge or skill, ignorant and untutored; it is often built with a genitive of the field (Plautus), or with ad or in.[2][3] Cicero uses it of unskilled speech that has spread, and has the first comparative and superlative.[2][4] Lewis & Short give ignārus and rudis as synonyms, and prūdēns and callidus as opposites.[3] Festus explains experītōs as imperītōs.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a man ignorant of women's ways.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of unskilled speech, with comparative and superlative.[2][4][6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. inexperienced, unskilled, ignorant.[2][1]
  2. (with genitive) Unacquainted with, unskilled in.[2][1]
  3. (of speech, conduct) Unskilful, untutored.[2]

Word family

  • imperītia

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de